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Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

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Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#231
We have been thinking, admittedly for a few months, about paying for a Spotify subscription and this sort of makes me lean more against -- particularly as a Pi-hole user (though it doesn't block Spotify's audio ads).

I wish Bandcamp would start a radio-style service. I have tried in the past to use it that way but it always tends to fall out of my mind because I can't just hit play and let it run.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#232
post #58
post #13

They allow advertisers to run JS on your device, and ads are a trendy way to deliver malware. People are using ad blockers not just to hide annoyances and to improve performance, but to protect themselves from bad actors. https://spotifyforbrands.com/en-US/ad-experiences/ > JavaScript or iFrame Tags: All third-party tags and tracking URLs need to be in https format. I was on the fence about this because there is a le…

Between the dwindling Netflix catalog and increasingly hostile subscription service experience on Spotify, I have found myself flying the black flag again. I still have subscriptions to both, but I will be cancelling them this year. I don't want their shitty analytics payloads, I don't want their shitty anti-adblocker tech. I don't want their shitty tactics of deleting random songs off my playlists. I just want the c…

There is so much good CC music out there, I don't feel the need to pay for a music service. Amongst Soundcloud, the Free Music Archive, Bandcamp, and Jamendo there are lifetimes of new music available for enjoyment out in the Creative Commons. When I find artists I truly enjoy, I prefer to support them directly.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#233

It's fascinating how we, humans, are lazy. We're lazy to the point where we'd gladly allow services like Spotify to control our computers just so they can make sure their ad was delivered. We'll even justify it by "well, I really listen to a lot of music". All I want is to push a button and get some bearable-noise during my 8 hours at work. I don't know about the rest, but I really hate when someone makes a fool out…

What’s fascinating to me is the length people go to in order to justify freeloading. If you don’t like the ads, Spotify has a subscription plan. In my country that’s €5 / month. Surely that’s less money spent than the effort it takes to pirate music for usage with foobar2000.

I'm not a "freeloader" as I pay for the premium service, but this news is the last straw. I'm unsubscribing and uninstalling, as soon as I figure out how to download my playlists.

I know this news doesn't affect me, but the principle is the important thing.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just about justification of freeloading. It's about a company being able to push arbitrary stuff to your device masked as adverts. Yeah fine I listen to music for free on your service. Does that mean that everyone should be able to spy on me? Nobody is complaining about voice or image or video-based ads. But running JS and iframes is just arrogant. Also I'm very pissed off with people who say freeloading. It…

> I pay with my time to watch or listen to your stupid ad. Not if you're using an ad-blocker. Perhaps the reason you're using an ad-blocker is because you don't want to be tracked, and the only way to do that is to block ads completely. I get it. But you're also using up Spotify's bandwidth and licensing fees (which in turn allow music to be created in the first place), without providing anything in return. This is o…

>>Perhaps the reason you're using an ad-blocker is because you don't want to be tracked

I use adblockers to protect myself against malicious content masquerading as ads, which both the ad delivery networks and content platforms have proven unwilling or unable to address to an acceptable extent.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#235
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Between the dwindling Netflix catalog and increasingly hostile subscription service experience on Spotify, I have found myself flying the black flag again. I still have subscriptions to both, but I will be cancelling them this year. I don't want their shitty analytics payloads, I don't want their shitty anti-adblocker tech. I don't want their shitty tactics of deleting random songs off my playlists. I just want the c…

>> I have found myself flying the black flag again I'm in the same boat(no pun intended), and also still pay for the subscriptions. I thought that more streaming services and more maturity(time passed) meant this situation would be improving - not degrading.

When the business model is to float a huge amount of capital to purchase unsustainable licensing agreements while you become a record label or movie studio — then it makes sense why we are here.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#236
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's not the same. You have the right to control your content, but that's not what's happening here. Presumably in this example you want to use Spotify (otherwise the whole conversation is moot) but they don't want to you circumvent how their service works. You're not the one controlling this situation, Spotify is. Your statement sounds very akin to "fine, kick me out of this party I was clearly enjoying, I don…

The analogy doesn't seem right. It's more like you are at a party and the clown they hired goes on your face to yell something. You have the right to move away and enjoy the party elsewhere. And now they'll kick you out of the party if you don't allow the clown to yell at you, ok, I'll leave the party myself in that case.

Or you pay the cover charge to get into the clown-free party?

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#237
post #80

Anyone know if there's a host file blacklist for malicious domains only? Most of the ones I've seen block all ads. The first time I experienced a malicious ad in Spotify on my Linux machine, I started blocking them via my hosts file [1]. I was only hoping to block malicious sites but it ended up giving me a completely ad-free experience in Spotify. As a free user I accept that I will be exposed to ads in exchange for…

You can use the malware domains blacklist [1]. It can be applied through uBlock Origin or as a hosts blacklist if you process the file.

Although I personally treat ads as a malware vector and block them. Hopefully I don't get banned from Spotify as I'm a paying customer. If I do, I'll switch to another platform.

[1] http://mirror1.malwaredomains.com/files/domains.txt

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#238
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's not the same. You have the right to control your content, but that's not what's happening here. Presumably in this example you want to use Spotify (otherwise the whole conversation is moot) but they don't want to you circumvent how their service works. You're not the one controlling this situation, Spotify is. Your statement sounds very akin to "fine, kick me out of this party I was clearly enjoying, I don…

The analogy doesn't seem right. It's more like you are at a party and the clown they hired goes on your face to yell something. You have the right to move away and enjoy the party elsewhere. And now they'll kick you out of the party if you don't allow the clown to yell at you, ok, I'll leave the party myself in that case.

more like they threw a party where you could pay a cover charge to get into the room with no clown or you could get in for free and know you had to deal with a clown. you decide to go in for free and just duck tap the clown's mouth shut because you felt you deserved to be at the party without paying and without having to deal with a clown.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#239
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not because I don't want to pay for the content, I'd happily pay 2-3x under the right circumstances. It's because no one wants to take my money and provide the content I want without bundling it with drm, ads, dark patterns, insane region segmentation. Can't help you with movies/Netflix, but in the case of Spotify, you could go back to buying mp3's. Google Play, Amazon, iTunes (aac format), etc will all sell y…

Netflix offers too much value for a small amount plus the size of movies makes downloading/previewing the throwaway type of netflix shows make it hard to justify the effort to pirate. Spotify always seems less useful compared to winamp if you knew what music you liked or like to download everything from one band who's best days are behind them. A hassle for new stuff but if you want the all of the 'yes' albums the ra…

ok well I bundle my media consumption with my phone service so on that hand it's not that problematic for me, but on the other hand I have netflix, paramount, cmore, viaplay, HBO nordic bundled as well as some cable channels and I would still have to pay another 30 dollars or so per month to get what I don't have now that I want

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#240

Long time premium spotify user, but it seems they are more interested in their ad-tech than anything else. They introduce 0 new features or improvements and in fact actually remove things over time. It's amazing to see a product continue to get worse. Before you could send your friends a message within Spotify to send a song for them to listen while in the application and could even carry on a discussion. It was slic…

Remember when subscribing to artists would give you alerts for when they released new content? It was a fantastic way of keeping up with new music. For me it was a killer feature. They replaced it with the terrible "Release Radar" playlist that shows a small sample of whatever this week's ML algo recommends. It's garbage.
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