this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
-1 points (0.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26250 readers
1367 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Is there a Spotify alternative that has no ads?

I pay for Spotify for 7 years or so now and i'm so sick of all the ads. After every update there seems to be an: oops, sorry, you have ads now. Podcasts are filled with ads. I was just listening to a podcast where they shoved in 3 ads mid-sentence. How long until musicians put ads in their songs. I'm just so sick of it.

top 11 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If you want to listen to podcasts, you should use a podcast app. Not an ad service with podcast functionality.

Podcasts are free (most of them). You can use any podcast app you like. I like poket casts, but you can find about 100 other apps.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Google has their own podcast app that's also pretty good

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's also getting shut down this coming year, so it's not a great suggestion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Lol of course it is

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Podcasts will have ads no matter where you listen to them. That's not Spotify inserting them, it's the podcasts. I pay for a family subscription to Spotify, and I never get ads in between songs, not after updates or anything.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's not Spotify inserting them, it's the podcasts.

The podcast may elect whether or not to include it, but it's definitely Spotify performing the legwork. That is unless you think it's a coincidence that I (with my Spotify home address set to Iowa) got an ad from the Iowa HHS on a podcast by a British podcaster.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's called dynamic ad insertion, and it's the podcast hosts choosing to insert ads into their podcasts. I know this because I have a podcast with no ads.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Spotify is giving them that choice. It should say that it won't run ads for premium users - only free ones.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's not Spotify that's "giving them that choice." It's the podcast distributor. For example, I use Red Circle, and I can choose to insert ads through them. Podcasts have the same ads regardless of the platform they are on. It's not Spotify, it's the podcasts. I don't like ads either...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How does it give me location specific ads if Spotify isn't inserting the ad for them?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Sorry I'm responding to such an old question, but it seemed like there wasn't an answer.

So when you make an http request (which you do every time you download a podcast episode), the request includes your IP address as part of the headers; it's called "remote address," and it's a part of every http request that's made on the internet. In fact, it has to be, as this is how responses are directed back to your device.

Now, this isn't perfect, but there are code libraries that can take that IP and fetch your location from a GeoIP database. It won't get your pin-drop location unless you're connected to Wi-Fi at a place with a known IP, but it can pretty generally figure out what cell tower or broadband ISP you're connected to; that'll usually get within 50 miles or so. Easy enough to get your state if you're in the US, and probably even your city.

So when you request an episode from a podcast using dynamic ad insertion, the server does that lookup, figures out where you're from, and then chooses ads to insert: local ones if there are any, general ones if not. Then it loads up the local ads into the audio file, hopefully into preselected gaps in the audio. (And honestly, most servers actually pre-cache a bunch of these for big cities where there are a lot of subscribers.) Then they send the podcast, with ads inserted, to your phone.

Sometimes this gets weird; if you download a podcast while on vacation, for instance, or over a VPN (I'm almost always connected to a VPN, so I rarely get any local ads), or if you subscribe through a service that precaches your podcasts before your phone downloads them, so it's their IP address that starts this process rather than yours. And if it's really bizarre, you might not get any ads at all; this has happened to me on a few podcasts. They just throw to sponsors and immediately come back. That's kinda nice.