Apple Music subscriber and retired Canadian founder of The Loop, Jim Dalrymple (@jdalrymple), on Wednesday reported hearing a 40-second ad while listening to Classic Rock on Apple Music — a paid music service from Apple that touts ad-free streaming.
According to Dalrymple, he was listening to the Apple Music classic rock station when he heard an ad for an unrelated radio show. The station he was listening to was Apple’s own, not a public radio station. “You can’t have my money and put in ads too,” Dalrymple said in a tweet, disappointed.
Apple says @AppleMusic is ad free, yet I’m hearing 40 second ads for some shitty radio shows when I listen to Classic Rock. I’m paying for the service, you can’t have my money and put in ads too. Anything that interrupts my music is ad! You are better than this Apple! I hope!
— Jim Dalrymple (@jdalrymple) May 31, 2022
Dalrymple isn’t the only (or the first) subscriber affected. Fellow Twitter user Robert Petersen (@Sonikku_a2) echoed Dalrymple’s experience, saying he too came across ads on Apple Music
Interestingly, Peterson also reported being served an ad while listening to classic rock on Apple’s music streaming service.
Also happened to me when listening to classic rock.https://t.co/s3hLzmxN5j
— Robert Petersen (Join Mastodon!) (@Sonikku_a2) May 31, 2022
Six Colors‘ Jason Snell reported a run-in with the phenomenon as well. Snell also said Apple is “inserting interviews into their playlists,” which can’t be auto-skipped even if you dislike them.
1000 words filed to Macworld. pic.twitter.com/pbroZO1k9B
— Jason Snell (@jsnell) May 31, 2022
You, @gruber or @reneritchie need to write about this. It’s absolute bullshit.
— Jim Dalrymple (@jdalrymple) May 31, 2022
None of the Cupertino, California-based tech giant’s Apple Music plans are supposed to contain ads. Not even the cheapest, $4.99 Voice and Student plans, the former of which made its debut late last year, are ad-supported.
Apple is yet to officially comment on the situation.
Last month, streaming hardware maker Roku launched support for Apple Music across all its devices, globally.
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I get why someone at Apple might not have thought of these interruptions as ads, since they aren’t promoting a different product or service but are meant to inform users about what else is available within the product they are using.
But, they’re ads. Not creepy spyware ads, but ads nonetheless. Apple needs to find a different way to help users discover other content within the service.
Apple has successfully inserted ads for Apple Arcade, Apple Music etc. into our thousand dollar phones without much complaint – so I guess they’re pushing it further.
Sounds like a great way to turn people off of a service. It’s bad enough when I hear tons ads on a free radio channel, but on a paid subscription? Nope, not going to happen.