Spotify has acknowledged an issue where some of its Premium paid subscribers are experiencing ads when trying to play music. In an X message posted Thursday by Spotify’s support team, the company said it was looking into the issue and provided a link to a community site where users have been reporting the problem for the past four weeks.
However, the company explained to TechCrunch that the current problem has a different cause than the one previously reported by users.
The company said that the problem affected a small number of users and its teams have rolled out a fix. (At the time of writing, Account X has not yet posted that the fix has been released and is still responding to user complaints by offering workarounds, such as logging out and logging back in.)
According to user reports on Spotify’s website and other online sources, premium subscription users who encountered the issue were frustrated because they paid for an ad-free experience but were still forced to hear ads. Suggested solutions, such as logging out, also did not work, according to many users.
According to reports, this problem affected users on mobile, desktop, and web devices.
Some users also noted that the problem was not on their side.
For example, they made sure their payment information was up to date before registering a complaint on Spotify’s website. Others requested a refund because they paid for an enhanced experience that they did not receive.
The premium bug issue comes on the heels of news that Spotify will soon launch new subscription tiers, including a “superfan” offering that will include a deeper catalog of music and videos, as well as other fan experiences. WMG is a partner in this new project.
Spotify’s competitor, YouTube, this week launched a Premium Lite subscription that offers ad-free videos in addition to music content. The more affordable $7.99/month subscription does not include access to YouTube Music and other features such as background playback and downloads.
