Spotify acknowledges the issue that some paid premium subscribers are now encountering ads when trying to play music. In an X post published Thursday by Spotify's customer service account, the company said it was investigating the issue and linking to a community website where the issue has been documented by users over the past four weeks.
However, the company revealed to TechCrunch that the current issue has a different cause than previously reported bugs by users.
A small number of users said they were affected by the issue and the team deployed the fix. (The X account has not yet posted that the fix has been released at the time of writing and responds to user complaints by suggesting workarounds such as logging out or back in.)
According to user reports on the Spotify site and elsewhere on the web, premium users who faced the issue were frustrated as they were paying for an ad-free experience, but were still forced to listen to the ads. The proposed solutions like logout are also not working, many said.
The issue had an impact on people across mobile, desktop and the web, the report shows.
Some users also pointed out that the issue is not on their side.
For example, before registering a complaint on the Spotify site, I made sure my payment information was up to date. Others were requesting a refund because they were paying for an upgraded experience they hadn't received.
The issue with Buggy Premium Tier follows the news that Spotify will launch a new subscription tier soon. This includes “Superfan” products that include deeper music, video catalogs and other fan experiences. WMG is a partner in a new initiative.
Spotify's competitor YouTube launched a premium Lite subscription this week, offering ad-free videos other than musical content. The more affordable $7.99 per month subscription does not include access to YouTube music or other features such as background play and downloads.