Spotify Premium glitch caused paying subscribers to still hear ads — here's Spotify's response

A Spotify Premium subscription brings with it a lot of benefits. You get lossless audio, on-demand playback, an AI-powered DJ and even audiobook listening. But the biggest benefit is far more prosaic: you don't have to put up with the commercials.

So it's understandable some Spotify listeners were a bit upset this week when a glitch caused the service to hit them with ads, despite their monthly $11.99/£11.99 payment.

Reports started to crop up on Reddit and were swiftly picked up around the web. Spotify itself clearly noticed the issue and worked swiftly to get it rectified.

"We've received some reports about Basic plans users who noticed they're getting ads and their accounts appear as Free on the mobile app, but the account overview does show they're Premium. We're currently investigating this behavior," the company posted on its Community page.

A further update confirmed the issue has been resolved.

"Thanks for your patience while we looked into this issue. We’re happy to say that this should now be fixed for everyone! If this continues to happen on your end, please make sure to log out and log in again, that should do the trick."

Other service providers will want to take note of Spotify's swiftness in solving the issue. Because the affected customers didn't pull their punches when it came to letting the Swedish streaming service know there was a problem.

One user wrote: "I am having exactly the same issue, this is VERY EXPLICITLY an advertisement interrupting regular music in a regular playlist, first time I have ever had this happen in the 12 years I have used Spotify and all it took was two stupid commercials and I now despise and loathe Spotify as a company and have spent the last hour researching alternatives that will allow me to keep my playlists."

Ouch.

If you're considering ditching Spotify, you might be interested to read about the streaming service my colleague Pete left it for here.

The reason for the glitch wasn't made clear, but it could be to do with the company tinkering in the background to add new features. According to recent reports, the latest version of Spotify (9.1.34.12) will finally bring playlist folders to the mobile app. Something that's long overdue.

Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.

More from Tom's Guide

• Spotify just handed you the keys to your taste profile — here's how to change it
• I ditched Spotify three months ago — here's what I switched to and why
• YouTube Music is locking this key feature behind a paywall — because apparently Google has no shame