Why Do I Have Ads on Spotify Premium? All About Ads on the Streaming Service
In response to the reports of unwanted ads, Spotify addressed the issue in a community forum.
Published March 6 2025, 1:26 p.m. ET
Millions of users across the world rely on popular streaming service Spotify to listen to their favorite music and podcasts whenever they like — but some find that their listening experience is hampered by ads.
As of January 2025, Spotify is the leading audio streaming service in the world, with 640 million active monthly users and 252 million premium subscribers, according to DemandStage.
Why do I have ads on Spotify premium?
On Thursday, March 6, multiple Spotify users began voicing their issues with ads on the streaming service despite being premium subscribers. Glitches like this have happened in the past and were fixed, but the current bug has users frustrated.
In response to the reports of unwanted ads, Spotify addressed the issue in a community forum. “Hey folks, we're aware of an ongoing issue with ads interrupting music playback that's being investigated here,” the company said.
“Check it out and Subscribe from the three dots menu so you're notified whenever there are any updates on the matter,” Spotify continued.
Spotify offers a solution to the issue.
In addition to the message acknowledging the problem with ads on Premium, Spotify also followed up with a solution for users to try with a set of steps. “If you've experienced an issue, please try resyncing your account info. To do this, you'll need to log out of the app and back in again 2-3 times in a row, as this will force a resync,” the company instructed.
“We also recommend force closing the app on mobile and then restarting it, if the above doesn't do the trick. For those of you experiencing issues with external devices (such as speakers), please make sure to restart the device as well,” Spotify said.
The company faced the same issue back in February.
Per the Android Authority, Spotify premium users complained less than a month ago of ads interrupting their streaming experience — which the company addressed. “Thanks for the patience while this was being investigated,” the company said at the time.
“We have good news from our teams — a fix for the instances where Premium users noticed ads when listening to music has been deployed and you should notice a difference right away. It’s worth keeping in mind, however, that it is expected that both free and Premium users may still see ads when listening to podcasts,” Spotify said.
Despite the occasional glitch, Spotify continues to thrive.
Per DemandStage, since 2023, Spotify has added an additional 38 million monthly active users across 184 regions. Premium user numbers have also increased, with 16 million news Premium subscribers since 2023.
Europe leads globally with the most Premium subscribers with 38 percent, followed by North America with 27 percent, the outlet said. Spotify also continues to top the intense competition by fellow music streaming platforms like Apple Music, Pandora, and iHeartRadio.
Industry insiders also predict that Spotify is on track to accumulate even more active monthly subscribers and Premium users by the end of 2025.