Ugh. How do these companies so thoroughly not understand their own raison d'être?

They understand that they make more money this way even if it pisses off customers.

They’ve calculated that the customers who drop because of it is outweighed by the higher profits from playing podcasts.

I remember when they would prominently advertise Jordan Peterson right on the home page of their app. No other podcasts, just him over and over again while I've never used their app for anything other than music.

I contacted their support to ask how to remove these advertisements from the product I paid for, and they told me that this was impossible.

Impossible is a strong word, and installing https://github.com/spicetify proved that it was, in fact, possible to remove the ads for podcasts from their product.

> their own raison d'être

It's growth, that's why they exist, searching for growth

Cancer has the same modus operandi.