> I went from thinking that this team has built a really great product since i've used it, to having a really negative opinion about them because the ad disrupted my flow
Just throwing this out there because you mentioned it's been a while since you used Spotify -
Spotify offers a premium service for $10/mo which allows unlimited music without ads playing every few songs [1]. If ads are the deciding factor in whether or not you consider the application "really great" and you decide it's worth it to you, the option is there for ad-free listening.
The main reason I bought Spotify premium (other than access to the full mobile platform) was to ditch the ads. I don't mind ads so much, but Spotify ads are particularly annoying. I seemed to get a lot of ads from fledgling hiphop artists, including extended samples of their songs, which was really disruptive and unpleasant when listening to folk/americana. After one two many focus sessions were ruined by obnoxious ads, I went ahead and bought premium.
Another folk/americana fan here, and I get contemporary pop music ads between my tracks on Spotify, and there's nothing more annoying than autotuned screeching between my Bob Dylan and Gillian Welch.
However instead of buying premium, I just use Spotify for discovery. If I like something I just get the album off iTunes, Amazon or Bandcamp. I find myself spending less per year than if I had subscribed to Spotify, _and_ I get to keep my music.
Just throwing this out there because you mentioned it's been a while since you used Spotify -
Spotify offers a premium service for $10/mo which allows unlimited music without ads playing every few songs [1]. If ads are the deciding factor in whether or not you consider the application "really great" and you decide it's worth it to you, the option is there for ad-free listening.
[1] https://www.spotify.com/us/premium/
Looks like they have a deal right now - 3 months for a buck.