Spotify has started showing some paying podcast listeners a button that skips a whole ad break with a single tap. But only ads “as long as they aren’t sold directly by Spotify” can be skipped, as the server Semafor first described.
A listener skips an ad that the publisher or creator inserted into the show, but not an ad sold by Spotify itself.
What the button skips and what it does not
The Skip Ahead button is shown to some Premium users in the US and Britain. With one tap it moves the listener past the whole block, which includes ads, promos, intro jingles, outros and inserted sponsor messages.
That the exemption applies only to inventory sold directly by Spotify is confirmed, alongside Semafor, by the Hollywood Reporter, which says that “this feature does not apply to ads that are sold specifically by Spotify”, and by Forbes.
This creates the asymmetry that Podnews describes. On one side Spotify sells ads. On the other it offers its paying listeners a feature “to enable those ads to not be heard”. Only for ads sold by someone else, though.
According to Podnews, the button appeared on ads from Acast and Audacy, on New York Times ads, and in Spotify’s own show with Bill Simmons. Even inside its own shows, then, the inserted third-party ad could be skipped, not the inventory Spotify sells itself.
Reactions from networks and creators
One ad firm, according to Podnews, said the whole model “could be considered fraudulent behaviour”. The ad is paid for and inserted into the audio, “but the listener has been actively encouraged not to listen”. The listener is being actively steered away from playing it. Podnews itself described the feature as a significant threat to ad-funded shows.
Creators reacted sharply too. “Very cool of @Spotify to try and destroy the podcast industry. What a great partner!” wrote to Spotify Tommy Vietor, co-founder of Crooked Media and host of Pod Save America.
According to Forbes, networks are meanwhile weighing a response, ranging from steering listeners towards Apple Podcasts to joint pressure on Spotify.
How many listeners skip ads
The stakes are high, because Spotify reports 777 million users, including 300 million subscribers, so most of its audience is on the free, ad-supported version. How many of them would actually skip ads is an open question.
Behavioural data show lower numbers than surveys would suggest. The analytics firm Bumper reports that its clients “regularly see ad retention of 90% or greater”, while in a Sounds Profitable survey from 2024, 46% of listeners said they “always or often” skip ads.
Bumper explains the gap by saying that “most consumers tend to overstate how often they skip ads when asked hypothetical questions”. Acast also comes in at around a tenth. According to the Hollywood Reporter, its internal metrics show that only about 10% of users skip ads manually today.
Advertisers are waiting for now
No panic has yet broken out among advertisers that the asymmetry could provoke. “Ad skipping is maybe scarier in theory than in practice, and so I don't think this is going to have major material direct impact on the brands that advertise,” said Dan Granger, head of the podcast ad agency Oxford Road, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The ad is technically delivered even when the listener skips it. Advertisers, in his view, are taking a wait-and-see approach until it becomes clear whether the test turns into a permanent feature.
Networks are dealing with the impact in practical terms. “We do have some creators on the Acast platform who are not happy about this and we will support them completely as they evaluate any recourse. Acast is working privately with Spotify to understand if we could have collaborated more on the rollout or positioning, but that's hindsight,” said Greg Glenday, head of Acast, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
At the same time, the Hollywood Reporter reports that podcast advertising is among the most effective in the media mix, so Acast does not consider this, “at the moment”, a fundamental problem. The most valuable format remains host-read advertising, read by the creator directly. If the button excluded it from skipping, advertisers would keep much of its value, according to Granger.
What it means for Europe
The button works only inside Spotify. Shows that also reach audiences on Apple Podcasts or YouTube keep their ads there, so creators who distribute outside a single app are more resistant to the feature.
The model that the test intervenes in is the same in Europe as in the US. European and Czech shows are financed by host-read and dynamically inserted advertising, exactly the inventory that the button lets listeners skip when another seller is behind it. Acast, through whose platform more than 140,000 shows run and which has paid out $600 million to creators since its launch, is among the networks whose ads had the button appear.
Spotify built up podcasts over the years by buying exclusive shows and studios, and their revenues largely rested on advertising. Now it gives paying listeners a way to skip ads, for everyone except itself.
“We regularly conduct tests at Spotify. Some tests become permanent features, while others help inform future product development,” Spotify said in a statement quoted by the Hollywood Reporter. Whether the test becomes a permanent feature will depend, according to the company, on how listeners use it.
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