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Why users complain about music & podcast apps
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What 383 real negative reviews say
We analysed the 1500 most recent public reviews of Spotify (App Store), Spotify (Google Play), Overcast Podcast App (App Store) (2024-12-05 – 2026-10-19). 383 were 1–3★. Share of those negative reviews tagged with each theme (a review can have several):
| Theme | Reviews | % of negative |
|---|---|---|
| Bugs | 225 | 59% |
| Feature requests | 150 | 39% |
| Pricing / subscription | 130 | 34% |
| Ads | 82 | 21% |
| Performance | 72 | 19% |
| UX / design | 72 | 19% |
| Crashes / freezes | 49 | 13% |
Examples, quoted verbatim
“Beyond disappointed that I’m paying for something and their advertisements were commercials, interrupting this fluid stream that I’m listening to. I will be canceling because of this. It’s terrible.” — Spotify (App Store), 1★
“horrendous not paying for free music” — Spotify (App Store), 1★
“Over over over advertisements. only ads. I open this app just to listen to some music when I’m free, but I end up getting three or four ads almost immediately. Even after one song finishes, more ads pop up before the next song starts. Is this app really meant ” — Spotify (Google Play), 1★
“new Spotify widget is such a downgrade. unless spotify is open 24/7 it says "spotify offline tap to go back online" and you tap it and it does nothing, so you have to the app icon anyways! not to mention its slow and it just looks bad. should have never left t” — Spotify (Google Play), 2★
The recurring complaints in music & podcast apps
- Ad load and frequency on free tiers
- Price increases and features (like picking songs) reserved for paid plans
- Playback, download and sync bugs after updates
What to do with this
- Pull your own last 500 reviews and tag them the same way. Your mix will differ from the category's.
- Fix the theme with the most 1★ reviews first. Pricing complaints often need clearer copy, not a lower price.
- Reply to every review that names a fixed bug, then edit the reply when the fix ships.
Ready-made replies for these situations: music & podcast app review reply templates.
Free: check your app's reviews 20 ready replies to your real bad reviews – €9 Weekly review monitor – €29/mo
Other categories: productivity & notes · photo, video & design · travel & flight tracking · weather
Theme percentages come from our automated tagging of public reviews; quotes are verbatim. Not affiliated with Apple, Google or the apps named.