from Hacker News

Spotifree – Free OS X App for Muting Spotify Ads

by gprasanth on 7/16/19, 7:40 AM with 25 comments

• by jormungand on 7/16/19, 10:24 AM

  I don't see any reason to do that for an app whose paid and ad-free version is really cheap for the huge value it provides. Remember when you used to buy CDs for every album.

• by vages on 7/16/19, 10:16 AM

  CHANGE MY MIND:

  I find no moral justification for using this, even if you can't afford Spotify's paid alternative.

• by jesperlang on 7/16/19, 10:21 AM

  So how does it work?

  > Spotifree is polling Spotify every .3 seconds to see whether the current track number is 0 (as in all ads). If it is, Spotify is muted for a duration of an ad. When an ad is over, the volume is set to the way it was before.

• by bl4ckneon on 7/16/19, 10:30 AM

  I agree with most of the comments here that you should just pay for Spotify... BUT genuine question. If it's just muted then the ad still plays and Spotify and the artist still get their money, so what is the harm?

  (the obvious answer would be the advertising company, anyone else or anything else I am not seeing?)

• by ojagodzinski on 7/16/19, 10:10 AM

  or just pay them like a decent human being.

• by vr46 on 7/16/19, 10:15 AM

  This - not being able to pay from country X, and then deciding to make this app, and then soliciting donations for it - is a great example of how people are frequently incentivized to do the wrong thing.

• by sidkhanooja on 7/16/19, 10:31 AM

  Most ads on Spotify are not even intrusive - they are (in)famously bad for advertising Spotify's own premium service (try premium for free!).

  This is just ridiculous. If you're annoyed by the ads, get a subscription then.

• by ollie87 on 7/16/19, 10:22 AM

  Yeah, this is gonna be a no from me.