Spotify Bans Ad Blockers In Updated ToS (theverge.com)

In an updated Terms of Service policy sent out on Thursday, Spotify is now explicitly banning ad blockers. "The new rules specifically state that 'circumventing or blocking advertisements in the Spotify Service, or creating or distributing tools designed to block advertisements in the Spotify Service' can result in immediate termination or suspension of your account," reports The Verge. From the report: The service already takes significant measures to limit ad blockers. In a DigiDay report from last August, a Spotify spokesperson revealed that the company has "multiple detection measures in place monitoring consumption on the service to detect, investigate and deal with [artificial manipulation of streaming activity]." After it was reported last March that 2 million users (about 2 percent of free Spotify users) were dodging ads with modded apps and accounts, Spotify began cracking down by disabling accounts when the company detected abnormal activity. Users were sent email warnings and given the chance to reactivate their accounts after uninstalling the ad-blocking software. In some rare cases where the problem persisted, Spotify would terminate the account. The new Terms of Service, which go into effect on March 1st, will give Spotify the authority to terminate accounts immediately, without warning.

Comments

Banning ad blockers will never work

[WCMI92]

And is the last gasp of a company that is destined to die. People will not put up with ads in the locations and quantity that publishers and marketers want. Nor should they have to.

Re:Banning ad blockers will never work

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

And is the last gasp of a company that is destined to die. People will not put up with ads in the locations and quantity that publishers and marketers want. Nor should they have to.

Bingo.

First they load the site with enough ads to annoy me, then they take steps to make sure they can continue to annoy me. This is not exactly a recipe for success.

Re:Banning ad blockers will never work

[Anonymous Coward]

Recent article mentioned that Spotify and such "saved" the recording labels. Thus reviving and feeding the RIAA monster in the basement. Maybe that time is up. Let nature take its course as people vote with their mouse-clicks / wallets. A few "starving artists" for a few years might also reset the music "industry" to produce something worth listening to.

Re: Banning ad blockers will never work

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want money from your users, put the product behind a paywall. It is that simple.

Re: Banning ad blockers will never work

[EzInKy]

They don't prefer ads, that's why they block them.

Re: Banning ad blockers will never work

[Anonymous Coward]

but people don't want to pay at all, instead they prefer ads.

To be clear, this is a false dichotomy. People do not want ads. People have never wanted ads. What they want is free and also NO ADVERTS. I know that's not possible, so I pay for Spotify to not get ads.

What I'm concerned about is, I also paid for Adguard, the paid version blocks adverts for all apps on desktop and mobile.

What I don't want is for Spotify to consider me one of the people that are ripping them off because "OMG AD BLOCKER DETECTED"

Re: Banning ad blockers will never work

[Anonymous Coward]

Because those freeloaders, in large amounts, are useful to inflate their numbers and make investors believe they are a successful business.

Re: Banning ad blockers will never work

[Zocalo]

Active user figures. Look at the way the stock values of social media companies react in relation to changes to userbase - FB and Twitter evaluations have both taken a tumble because they failed to meet expected user growth targets, not just revenue targets; they're ultimately ad-companies so they *need* as many eyeballs as possible. It's also a risk; those users are going to go somewhere, and what happens if that somewhere becomes the Next Big Thing? Pretty sure Spotify doesn't want to become the next MySpace...

Guess who won't be using Spotify?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Q: Guess who won't be using Spotify?

A: Everybody.

Sorry, but if you prevent me from using an ad blocker you're basically preventing me from visiting your site. That's just how it works, nothing personal.

So long, Spotify, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Re:Guess who won't be using Spotify?

[crgrace]

If you're using their free service but blocking ads you are actually costing them money because they have to pay for the songs they stream.

So it is probably best you not use the service. Spotify isn't a charity.

Paying for a subscription is much better option

[TuballoyThunder]

Provided that the pay service performs demonstrably better. I don't have anything against advertising, but I think it is irresponsible that businesses outsource advertising. Not only have they handed over their revenue generation to someone else, but they have no control over the buffoonery in the ads.

Re:Users ban Spotify

[Luthair]

Seems like a net benefit for Spotify, currently you're costing them money on bandwidth and streaming fees, if you stop using their site you'll cost them nothing.

Re:Users ban Spotify

[Anonymous Coward]

If you were to (gasp!) RTFA, you'd see that they claim that only 2% of the free-service users are smart enough to employ ad blockers. So to your corrected question, "And when 2% of their users leave", I don't think they'll be too crushed at the loss.