Sadly, Spotify currently offers no way to turn this off.
A Reddit post by mydpy on r/truespotify has sparked a big discussion about Spotify’s disruptive notifications practices.
The post talks about how Spotify’s ads and concert alerts are bothering premium subscribers, leading users to question the value of paying for Spotify Premium when they still have to deal with ads.
Even worse, Spotify has revealed that users don’t have access to turn off these notifications, for now.
Unwanted In-App Notifications on Spotify
The conversation started with mydpy’s post about how Spotify’s notifications are disrupting the user experience.
In his post, the OP shared a screenshot of an ad promoting a collaborative playlist feature with FC Barcelona players.
But it gets worse. Spotify apparently sends these ads too frequently, making them very disruptive for the user. For instance, 30 minutes after the OP posted about the Jam ad, he received another in-app ad, this time for Spotify Duo.
The OP has been a Spotify premium subscriber since 2010. However, this issue, among others, has prompted him to consider leaving Spotify for good.
The issue deepens with the revelation that users cannot opt out of these in-app notifications. Attempts to disable them only affect email alerts, leaving the in-app experience unchanged.
This was confirmed by the OP’s discussions with Spotify’s support.
As users offered the usual solution of turning off notifications via Spotify’s settings, the OP clarified that the notifications persisted despite doing so.
The Spotify Community Rallies for Change
The Reddit community quickly rallied around mydpy’s post, with many users sharing their own frustrations with Spotify’s notifications.
Most of the reaction shows significant dissatisfaction among premium subscribers regarding the platform’s use of in-app ads and alerts. This is especially emphasized by their frustration on still dealing with ads despite paying for the service to remove them.
Others also expressed their annoyance, not just because of the frequency and existence of the ads but the relevance of these notifications.
“I was just thinking about this the other day. I wouldn’t mind it as much if the notifications were relevant, but I’m getting spammed with crap like “DID YOU KNOW THE BEATLES ARE FEATURED IN “THIS IS THE BEATLES” PLAYLIST? LISTEN NOW!”” says TimmyGUNZ.
“My home feed has also been littered with Sponsored Suggestions, more often than not from artists/genres I have no interest in and never listen to.”
Another user also pointed out other issues with the platform, showing the broader discontent with Spotify’s service changes.
The discussion also revealed confusion over the ability to control these notifications. Despite some users, suggesting that notifications could be managed in settings, the OP and other users clarified that those settings do not include in-app notifications.
Spotify’s Response to Ads Complaints
A user also complained about a similar thing a while ago in Spotify’s community forums. The user shared that he had already disabled the notification settings but still kept on receiving them in-app, sometimes twice within an hour.
Here, a representative from Spotify responded to clarify the issue.
“These pop-up notifications aren’t ads, but recommendations or suggestions about new or existing Spotify services or campaigns that might be of your interest based on your listening habits. They don’t interrupt your listening experience as they appear only once when you open the app.” says the representative.
“Currently, this can’t be deactivated on the app.”
Unfortunately, the statement did little to address the core of users’ frustrations—namely, the lack of control over these in-app interruptions.
Spotify also suggested a path forward through community engagement on their Idea boards. Apparently, there has already been a suggestion to fix the issue. However, it has not gathered enough support yet, so the status was set as “Closed”. But, the user can still vote on it or start another suggestion.