Is Spotify about to insert ads into its premium service?

Spotify is one of the few services that allows for free streaming if you (a) don’t mind a hobbled interface that doesn’t come without all the bells and whistles, and (b) listening to a few ads over the course of an hour. If you want all the features and no ads, then you need to subscribe to its premium service.

There is, however, a rumour that Spotify is looking to include ads in its premium service, which would kinda defeat some of the advantages of paying for anything, would it?

Spotify categorically defines this. They dropped this in on X.

There is a rumor circulating that Spotify is putting ads into premium music listening. This rumor is false. Premium music listening is and will remain ad-free.

— Spotify (@Spotify) April 8, 2025

They also reiterated that position here.

Who started this rumour? No idea. Will there sill be ads in podcasts? Yes. And will Spotify keep this promise? We’ll see. All the other streamers (I’m looking at you, Netflix and Amazon) are now including ads after they said they never would.