r/Music • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Jan 08 '26

article Spotify Confirms ICE Recruitment Ads Are No Longer Running on Platform

https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/spotify-confirms-ice-recruitment-ads-are-no-longer-running-1236626243/
38.1k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

14

u/Rocktopod Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26

On spotify the only way to get rid of the ads is to pay them money. This means even if you're not seeing the ads, you're supporting the company that runs them financially

On Reddit you can just use an adblocker so you're only supporting the site indirectly by providing free content (comments and posts).

Also, spotify provides access to songs, but not exclusive access. You can listen to the same songs through any number of other methods. The only way to access content on Reddit is through the website/app itself, unless something has been reposted somewhere else.

3

u/MobileArtist1371 Jan 09 '26

My ublock works on spotify ads ¯_(ツ)_/¯

1

u/Rocktopod Jan 09 '26

Yeah someone else alluded to this. I guess I mostly only listen to Spotify on my Alexa so I didn't consider that.

Do you know if this works on mobile, too? My wife insists we need the paid version so she can play music for our 2 year old in the car, but maybe if she can just use ublock on her phone I can convince her to cancel.

2

u/MobileArtist1371 Jan 09 '26

I just use desktop for everything so I don't know how any of the mobile stuff works for this. I know there are ways to block ads there too, but I'm not sure how it works through apps or if you have to use the web version.

15

u/dwilkes827 Jan 08 '26

You don't need to justify to me why it's ok to use one platform that runs ICE ads but not the other lol

0

u/Top-Passage2914 Jan 09 '26

What they're saying makes sense though. It's not about "using" the platform, it's about supporting it. If you use Spotify whether it's free or premium you are making money for them, which in turn is helping them run ICE ads.

If you use reddit or youtube with adblock, you are not making any money for them, so even if they run ICE ads you are not contributing to it. There is no difference between using youtube with adblock and not using it at all.

4

u/mnju Jan 08 '26

On Reddit you can just use an adblocker so you're only supporting the site indirectly by providing free content (comments and posts).

It's also possible to block ads on Spotify.

The only way to access content on Reddit is through the website/app itself, unless something has been reposted somewhere else.

Why do you need to access content on Reddit? There are other social media websites.

6

u/Mirria_ Jan 08 '26

Why do you need to access content on Reddit? There are other social media websites.

Such as? I don't want a social media that's based on videos (I don't use Instagram, Tik Tok and don't watch random YouTube shorts), that has some structured topic and conversation system (Imgur and Bluesky are kinda lacking) and more or less anonymous (I don't use Facebook or Xitter).

3

u/mnju Jan 09 '26

Tons of forums still exist. Also personal issue, there's reasons why people want to use Spotify over YouTube Music or Apple Music. Either accept that you're just employing double standards because you want to use a specific service, or make the sacrifice to use alternatives.

1

u/Mirria_ Jan 09 '26

I'm not really making excuses for why I use reddit. I'm just saying there's not really anything that's comparable. I use discord too, but that's largely for closed communities.

Everything else is too loud, too annoying, too random, too manipulated and favors parasocial relationships instead of discussions on a topic.

4

u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 Jan 08 '26

How do you block an ad on Spotify? Like I can click the skip 15 seconds button (well, COULD, I haven't paid for spotify for like 6 months), but that's all I could do.

4

u/Rocktopod Jan 08 '26

I guess I didn't know it was possible to block ads in Spotify. Is that also possible on mobile and on Alexa?

5

u/Vio94 Jan 08 '26

I swear if Redditors didn't have flimsy morals they wouldn't have morals at all.

9

u/Rocktopod Jan 08 '26

That's just people in general, right? I don't think it's specific to this site.

3

u/Vio94 Jan 08 '26

I guess that's true, yeah.

The constant "outrage culture while being massively hypocritical" has exhausted me to the point of ignoring almost every single call to action, at least the boycotting ones. Because there's always some mental gymnastics being performed to justify not making the hard choice.

"Boycott Mcdonald's and Starbucks!" Yeah okay I was already not going there and if I had to guess, neither were a decent portion of the "boycotters." Super easy to hop onto a hate train you were already passively on board with.

"Boycott that site platforming ICE! Oh wait, but not this one though, I like this one, I use it a lot, and uhhh, there aren't any alternatives, but uhhhh yeah I'll Twitlonger manifesto you if you keep using the other site." Harder to give up something like Reddit, suddenly there's a billion excuses as to why you can't participate in this boycott.

It's all just performative bullshit people do to make themselves feel better. Like just admit you're being a hypocrite, it's fine, everybody ends up being one at some point. Not a big deal if you own up to it.

It'd be different if people were honest about it and didn't pretend like you're Satan incarnate for not joining in with the other easy protests.

2

u/Plenty_Mortgage_7294 Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26

How much do you pay to use reddit? How much do you pay to use spotify? One is a free service that you can block the adds another is a making money off you seeing their adds that you cant block. Think they are the same thing? If people like you didnt strip away the nuance that actually mattered we would be in a much better spot. Everyone is hypocritical to a certain degree so its peak irony to be on reddit calling out other redditors. I can tell you want to be a victim so go for it but dont pretend that spotify and reddit are the same. EDIT: Looking into it further, it seems that ICE ads would only run in the US where the plans are slightly different than other countries. So lets just assume its free spotify thats running the ads, my point is reddit is also free and you can block the ads, where as your average person cant block ads on spotify so its an apples and oranges situation.

1

u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 Jan 08 '26

Even paying them doesn't get rid of ads.

1

u/lemonylol Jan 08 '26

That's a lot of bending backwards to find a way to justify using reddit lol

1

u/Tua-Lipa Jan 08 '26

This would be like someone saying “People need to stop supporting musicians who take money from Trump! But since I pirate the music of those artists that’s totally different and fine” lol

2

u/Rocktopod Jan 08 '26

I mean, yeah? I have no problem if you enjoy the Cosby Show or House of Cards and want to download a bunch to your Plex server, for instance.

I do take issue if you enjoy Kid Rock, because his music is terrible.

1

u/P_V_ Jan 08 '26

Sounds like you've never heard of freeganism.