Spotify: Music and Podcasts reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
A music-streaming giant with a vast library and uncannily accurate recommendations, which for free users has turned into a wall of ads and paywalled basics, and for paying users into an app that keeps breaking after updates.
What users love
Recommendations and auto-playlists nail your taste
Users' biggest love is the algorithm: Discover Weekly, Daily Mixes, and "cruise control" off your liked songs match taste so well that people discover new artists and never want it to stop.
Auto-generated playlists based on my taste are spot on.
The 'Discover Weekly' and 'Daily Mixes' are pure magic.
The cruise control based on my liked songs is mad!!! It brings similar songs, beats and vibes.
A huge library: almost everything is there
A strength even critics admit: "100 million songs at your fingertips." People find childhood tracks, obscure recordings, and music from any country — over years of searching it rarely lets them down.
100 million songs at your fingertips.
Great experience with this👌 I can find all my favorite songs, even from back then.
it has found every album, song, artist, and genre I've searched for ......including the yodeling song by Frigid Pink!
Podcasts, audiobooks, and cross-platform reach in one app
Beyond music, people value that Spotify carries podcasts and audiobooks, hooks seamlessly into Alexa and Wi-Fi speakers, plays in the background across apps, and ties the account to concerts and ticketing.
I love the way Spotify app connects with my Alexa and Wi-Fi speakers seamlessly.
we enjoy going to concerts, so the connection built in to events and ticketing is so helpful.
Pretty good for listening to music, especially since it plays when using different apps.
Premium with lossless and yearly Wrapped feels worth it
Long-time subscribers and family/Duo plans call premium the one subscription worth paying for: crystal-clear sound, lossless, no ads, and the beloved year-end Wrapped recaps.
superb app with lossless quality sounds phenomenal
I love Spotify - only subscription that's worth consistently paying for in my opinion.
gives me all my music needs, easy to use and I look forward to my end of year recaps.
What users hate
The free tier strips away the basics: you can't pick a specific song
Without premium you have no control: you can't choose a track, can't turn off shuffle, skips are capped — the app decides what plays. Users say it stops being a music app at all.
won't let me pick the songs I want on the free version, I'm not playing for premium!
you can't even slide the music timeline or play your song of choice
you can't even choose the songs you want to listen you're forced to listen to their recommended playlist and you can't even skip more then six songs
Ads come in walls: several spots per couple of songs
The top free-tier complaint is ad frequency: "5 ads per 2 songs," minute-long spots, ads before the app even opens. Killing the "30 minutes ad-free" perk pushes people over the edge.
you have ads every 4 songs and you'll get about 5 ads if you dont have premium
nowadays 2 songs 3 ads..they turn your music into nightmare..
The ad song plays before starting the app.
Crashes and black screens after updates — even for paying users
After a recent update (6/16/26) the app crashes on launch, hangs on a black screen, or closes mid-song. Reinstalling and clearing cache don't help, and it's premium subscribers who get hit.
This keeps crashing and restarting. I've uninstalled and reinstalled and restarted my phone several times
My app keeps shutting down while in use since the latest update on 6/16/26
The app keeps closing and then I'm getting a pop up saying that there is a bug in the app.
The new widget broke what used to work
Forcibly swapping the compact widget for a big 4×2 one is a widespread pain: the new one constantly buffers, shows no artwork, won't open the app, and eats a third of the home screen. People beg for the old one back.
The new widget sucks. Never works, always buffering. Bring back the old one.
Latest update bricked the widget. It forces you to switch to bigger widget, which doesn't display any images.
Give us back the smaller widget. I do not want Spotify taking up a third of my home screen.
Ads leak through even to those paying to avoid them
Some premium users still get ads and banners they specifically pay to avoid — especially "Advertisement 1 of 1" inserts between podcasts. It reads as a breach of the deal, not a glitch.
after charging me a fee and I am still struggling to hear premium music without adds
when you specifically pay JUST to NOT have adverts it can be quite frustrating
it shows up as "Advertisement 1 of 1" right after a podcast and is not part of that podcast. I have confirmed my plan is a paid plan.
Pushy auto-connect and ignored playback settings
Music starts itself on other devices, plays where it wasn't launched, kicks in at night with the app closed, and shuffle keeps running even when it's off. You lose control over your own playback.
Why doesn't music start on the device where it actually started? why it plays on random other devices around me?
your crummy app starts playing music at 3 am when the app is not open on amy of my devices
The shuffling of songs/artists when shuffle is turned off is unacceptable.
Price hikes and a sense of greed push people to rivals
Price increases, features yanked from the student plan, and a general "money hungry" feel are driving long-time subscribers to Apple Music and YouTube Music. Years of loyalty don't offset feeling milked.
9.99USD was perfect. Greed is addictive isn't it???
greedy company. removed my dj x feature on my student plan nou i need to pay 5 times the price just to get it back
I am moving on to YT music
Login breaks: endless loading and "Something went wrong"
Users can't log in even with the right password: endless loading, network errors, getting signed out after one album. Search also fails with "Something went wrong," and there's barely any in-app help.
Literally can't login with the correct password - condascending dev response too.
i listened to ONE ALBUM, it signs me out, and when i try to sign back in it's just an endless loading screen.
There's just a "Something went wrong. Try again?" message in various parts of the app.
Charged money — premium never unlocked, support is silent
The payment goes through but premium doesn't activate; some are charged multiple times. There's no live support, replies are canned, and people resort to PayPal refunds.
I made the payment three times, but the premium didn't unlock.
I was debited for individual premium this morning, and I wasn't granted the subscription I need refund please
Imagine charging people for a subscription and offering no support.