Spotify might let free users skip all ads

Spotify is testing a new feature in Australia that’ll let non-paying users skip ads (both audio and video) as many times as they like. The company tells AdAge that the idea is that users will likely only skip ads they don’t care about, so what they do consume will give Spotify feedback on how to better target them. A company executive compared it to Discover Weekly, but for ads. Advertisers won’t have to pay for skipped ads.

I sort of understand this, but I don’t know how much better it will make ads. People are lazy and don’t want to have to navigate back to the app just to skip an ad. Spotify says it’s only testing the feature for now, but the goal is to launch it globally. As someone who pays for Spotify, this makes me feel a little dumb! I only pay so that I never have to hear ads (and for offline downloads), but skippable ads seem easier to tolerate. It takes a bit of work to avoid them, but it might be worth the effort just to save some cash.