Spotify’s new ad-skipping feature lets some users bypass podcast ads not sold directly by Spotify — and podcast networks are worried about the fallout.
Spotify is unsettling much of the podcast industry with a small interface change. Last week, the audio streaming giant tweaked its app, adding a feature that lets some users more effectively skip through the parts of a podcast they don’t want to hear — notably ads, promotions, and filler content — as long as that content isn’t sold directly by Spotify. The company has framed the move as simply streamlining a feature that already exists: the app’s 15-second skip button, which users in practice already use to bypass ads.
Even so, the change could reshape a podcast industry that’s already adjusting to a broader migration toward YouTube. For shows that depend on listeners actually hearing their directly sold ads to make money, the update landed as a warning shot. Podnews called it a “significant threat” to ad-funded shows.
Several major audio networks reached out to Spotify after the change was announced, raising concerns about threats to their monetization and asking for more information. Privately, the platform has tried to ease some of those anxieties, telling publishers and audio companies in conversations last week that the changes will actually help overall listenership by keeping users more engaged — citing internal data showing the skip button kept people listening to podcasts longer. Spotify also left itself room to walk the feature back, reiterating that it remains in an early testing phase as the company continues gathering feedback from podcast companies, publishers, users, and advertisers.
The View From Stockholm
The new skip button underscores Spotify’s broader push toward premium subscriptions, prioritizing steady, recurring revenue over ad revenue that flows to third-party podcast publishers. In effect, it cements a two-tiered advertising system: marketing bought directly through Spotify can’t be skipped, while publishers’ own ads can be — devaluing that inventory.
Advertising has been part of Spotify’s strategy from the start; its free tier helped it gain a foothold in the 2010s, at a time when many people were still pirating music online. But podcasting has complicated that picture, with users expressing confusion and frustration at having to sit through podcast ads even though they already pay Spotify for an ad-free music experience. According to a person familiar with the company’s thinking, Spotify’s leadership also believes some podcast companies overload their shows with excessive ads. Making matters worse for free-tier users — who still make up the majority of Spotify’s 777 million monthly active users — those listeners are hit with both Spotify’s own ads and the ads sold by audio companies.
Spotify told Semafor the rollout is fairly limited for now: the skip button only appears when the Spotify app is in the foreground, and only some paid subscribers currently see it. “We regularly conduct tests at Spotify — some tests become permanent features, while others help inform future product development,” a Spotify spokesperson said. “We’re exploring ways to make podcast listening and viewing more intuitive for Premium subscribers based on how people use the platform, with the goal of helping listeners spend more time enjoying podcasts. We’ll continue to evolve the experience as we learn.”
An Industry Already in Transition
The potential disruption to the podcast ad economy lands at an uncertain moment for an industry already retooling itself — shifting from a format that resembled radio toward one that looks much more like television. The decline of linear TV has pushed audiences toward video podcasting on platforms like YouTube and, increasingly, Netflix, which has replaced traditional television for many younger viewers. Algorithmic video feeds have accelerated that shift, with more podcast companies now treating clips on platforms like TikTok as the primary way audiences — and in some cases entire brands — discover their shows in the first place. The advertising industry has embraced this shift too, enjoying something of a return to the familiar territory of the 30-second ad spot.
The podcast ad business has long worked to reassure marketers that listeners actually hear their commercials. While some users do skip ads, most public and private measurement suggests the vast majority of listeners catch at least some portion of them — a dynamic Spotify’s new skip button could meaningfully change.
One podcast executive with several shows in Spotify’s top 50 raised the possibility that, if Spotify follows through on the change, their company could try shifting audio listeners toward Apple — the once-dominant podcast platform that has ceded significant market share to Spotify and YouTube in recent years. Another podcast executive suggested that if the skip button proves effective enough, podcast companies may need to find a way to pressure Spotify collectively.
Few media companies have managed to meaningfully push back against major tech platforms, but Spotify has shown some willingness to bend under pressure recently. Last year, the platform announced it would roll out public play counts for podcasts; just days later, it clarified that it would only group those counts into broad buckets above a certain threshold — a concession that reassured podcasters who didn’t want individual episode streams scrutinized by listeners or advertisers.
Still, it’s easy to see the feature’s appeal from Spotify’s side. The button appeared in one Semafor reporter’s iPhone app last week when the app was open and full-screen — not on the lock screen or during background listening — and by their account, it worked well enough to eliminate the need to hear even a fragment of a ZipRecruiter ad.