"Sponsored recommendations": I pay for Spotify Premium, and yet somehow I'm still the product?
"Sponsored recommendations": I pay for Spotify Premium, and yet somehow I'm still the product?
I opened Spotify this morning to be greeted by a modal popup with a "sponsored recommendation".
Why am I seeing ads if I'm already paying for the premium plan!? 😑
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It's funny because the radio industry used to have this pay-to-play model. It began to be called "payola" and triggered a huge controversy including congressional investigations and an FCC crackdown. Yet here we are, with the same shit happening again in digital format. This is honestly worse than payola since radio was free and this is not. I don't like paying to be advertised to. Considering leaving Spotify; there seem to be more and more shenanigans like this popping up, AND their subscription price just increased!
I work in the radio industry (digital side) and have to sign a payola contract every year.
The Wikipedia article says "payola" is an illegal practice and that text links to "commercial bribery" - so are they starting to get bribed into doing stuff like this too even though it's a paid service? That "they want all the money" statement must go deeper than I thought.
Once in a while here, for the rest no ads in the slightest here in the Netherlands, it’s all Gucci.