Today I will show you how to easily block the servers hosting Spotify ads on your Linux/Mac or Windows machine. This will allow you to listen all day long on a free account without hearing a single ad. This trick is very simple, legal and works great. Spotify may catch on and find some way to stop this from working but, as of today (13 March 2019) it works swimmingly.
UPDATE 20-02-19: List updated thanks to Johan, ad blocking works again. Somehow Spotify found cheap way to block music if you block they DNS ad services by pinging it back from client. Note to update your HOSTS entries.
UPDATE 10-03-19: Huge DNS list update, added lots of new advertising entries.
Blocking Ad Server
In order to remove those pesky ads, all we need to do is setup out hosts file to override the DNS for Spotify’s ad servers and redirect that traffic to our local machine. When the traffic hits out local machine the call will fail and the ad will be skipped. Follow the steps below to add the entries needed.
Open your hosts file using your favorite text editor. I mostly use terminal in Linux. Add the following lines to the bottom of your hosts file and save your hosts file (Look below How To in your favour OS):
RAW HOSTS File Updated 10-03-19: https://pastebin.com/raw/9M5ALu8n
For Windows 10 & 8
- Press the Windows key.
- Type Notepad in the search field.
- In the search results, right-click Notepad and select Run as administrator.
- From Notepad, open the following file: c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
- Make the necessary changes to the file.
- Click File > Save to save your changes.
Or very easy way of using Batch file! Take the info from the THIS paste bin url, copy all of it, paste it into Notepad and save the filename as whatever you please but be sure to add “.bat” at the end (without quotes). And execute it As Admin in Windows.
For Linux
- Open a terminal window.
- Open the hosts file in a text editor (you can use any text editor) by typing the following line:
sudo nano /etc/hosts
For Mac OS X 10.6 through 10.12
- Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
- Open the hosts file by typing the following line in the terminal window:
sudo nano /private/etc/hosts - Type your domain user password when prompted.
- Edit the hosts file.The file contains some comments (lines starting with the # symbol), and some default hostname mappings (for example, 127.0.0.1 – local host). Add your new mappings after the default mappings.
- Save the hosts file by pressing Control+x and answering y.
- Make your changes take effect by flushing the DNS cache with the following command:
dscacheutil -flushcache
There you go, editing hosts file has taken effect.
Why This Works?
To understand how this works we first need to understand the role DNS plays in our operating system. When we are communicating with other services on the web everything is referenced by IP address. For instance, when I tell my browser to go to google.com, it has to know where to find google.com. This is where DNS comes into play. DNS short for Domain Name Servers is a service that translates human readable, easy to remember domain names into IP addresses that other machines can communicate with. Whenever you add an entry to your local hosts file you are overriding the DNS entry locally for whatever domain you enter. For instance, if I add the line “127.0.0.1 test.local” to my hosts file, whenever i type “test.local/” into my browser, it will see the entry in my hosts file and use the IP 127.0.0.1(locahost) rather than reaching out to a DNS server to try and resolve that address. Where this comes into play for us is overriding Spotify ad servers. When we add an entry for each server that hosts ads for Spotify and points them to our local machine, we are ensuring that whenever Spotify reaches out for an add it hits our local machine instead of the real ad server and gets an error. When Spotify detects this error it stops trying to attempt to run the ad and the ad is skipped.
workes for me on linux thansk dude
How can you see these domains? Maybe Spotify changes the domain name servers. Is it possible to keep the list updated?
tired of nothing of ads !!!! thank you
I just tried this now and it works on Windows 10. Thanks so much!
thank you so much 😀
the last line doesn’t work on linux
I use debian, and it didn’t work either:
if you are using a debian based OS try booth commands with root perm:
1. apt-get install nscd
2. /etc/init.d/nscd restart
Or, you can add the following entries to your HOSTS file:
# Spotify
127.0.0.1 adclick.g.doublecklick.net
127.0.0.1 adeventtracker.spotify.com
127.0.0.1 ads-fa.spotify.com
127.0.0.1 analytics.spotify.com
127.0.0.1 audio2.spotify.com
127.0.0.1 b.scorecardresearch.com
127.0.0.1 bounceexchange.com
127.0.0.1 bs.serving-sys.com
127.0.0.1 content.bitsontherun.com
127.0.0.1 core.insightexpressai.com
127.0.0.1 crashdump.spotify.com
127.0.0.1 d2gi7ultltnc2u.cloudfront.net
127.0.0.1 d3rt1990lpmkn.cloudfront.net
127.0.0.1 desktop.spotify.com
127.0.0.1 doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ds.serving-sys.com
127.0.0.1 googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 googleads.g.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 gtssl2-ocsp.geotrust.com
127.0.0.1 js.moatads.com
127.0.0.1 log.spotify.com
127.0.0.1 media-match.com
127.0.0.1 omaze.com
127.0.0.1 open.spotify.com
127.0.0.1 pagead46.l.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 partner.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 pubads.g.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 redirector.gvt1.com
127.0.0.1 s0.2mdn.net
127.0.0.1 securepubads.g.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 spclient.wg.spotify.com
127.0.0.1 tpc.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 v.jwpcdn.com
127.0.0.1 video-ad-stats.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 https://www.techattend.com
127.0.0.1 weblb-wg.gslb.spotify.com
127.0.0.1 http://www.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 http://www.googletagservices.com
127.0.0.0 gads.pubmatic.com
Hope it helps.
This list shows the friend list but doesn’t block ads here. Not really useful.
wow, love that idea, finally understood a slightly bit the idea of DNS. Let’s hope it’ll work!
This worked for me in Windows 10. Thank so much!
these instructions are incomplete. the HOSTS file is a hidden, read-only system file. in order to change the hosts file, you must apply the following commands on command prompt while run as administrator:
1)
attrib -s -h -r c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\HOSTSto make the file writeable. and the following after appending (NOT changing) the HOSTS file:
2)
attrib +s +h +r c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hoststo make the file hidden again
Works on MAC OS 10.13.4 as of May 18, 2018. No more long pauses like when I was using Spotifree.
doing this actually causes the friend feed to stop working for me, anyone else?
This works for blocking the adds, but it also blocks all requests from spotify to its server (for example for the friends feed or radio stations).. Didn’t find a solution for this so far, the line which is causing the issue is
127.0.0.1 spclient.wg.spotify.com
so will removing this line not solve the issue then?
Same for me.
Has anyone figured out a work around. I llike using radio feature.
worked for me too on Windows10
works on me. Windows 10 user. kudos!
Working fine but the Friend Activity is not displayed anymore !?
Thank you mate 🙂
Notepad c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts is more easy for command, just need open cmd to admin .
Thank you for this simple solution.
THIS IS SIMPLY GREAT.
Now I have Spotify free without the ads on my Windows 10 PC.
You made my day!
Could we do the same directly on the router so the whole house would be spotify FREE of pubs? That would be great! (I tried but could’t find a simple way of doing so 😦 )
Thank you again!
There are many illegal entries in the list, all domains listed to start with http:// need to be fixed so that the http:// is removed, or else they will not work at all.
Also change 127.0.0.1 to 0.0.0.0, this will give the benefit that no request will be made (going against 127.0.0.1 will make a request to the local machine).
You’re right, fixed the issue. Thanks for correction!
On Mac OSX 10.11.6, works perfectly, no more adds,no pauzes, and no more banners too. Excellent work ! Many thanks . and I now understand DNS.
Stopped working for mi in Ubuntu 18, now it blocks all the songs too.
List updated, works again!
Spotify likes playing games 🙂
Sad ly the small list at the top doesn’t work and the long list in A.S. comment only let you play your songs in your Album section, so no new songs…..anyone? The only thing i can do now is search without list, than add to Albums and than add list to hosts file.
The small list does works, you cant block Spotify’s, because they use those services for receiving data back to let you listen to music 9 evil technical methods) but third party ads are blocked.
Not here, on El Capitan OSX 10.11.6 I’ll try use the big list and delete the Spotify ones….At this moment this one is working for me( as long as it last):
# Block Spotify Ads
127.0.0.1 media-match.com
127.0.0.1 adclick.g.doublecklick.net
127.0.0.1 googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 googleads.g.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 pubads.g.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 omaze.com
127.0.0.1 b.scorecardresearch.com
127.0.0.1 bounceexchange.com
127.0.0.1 bs.serving-sys.com
127.0.0.1 content.bitsontherun.com
127.0.0.1 core.insightexpressai.com
127.0.0.1 d2gi7ultltnc2u.cloudfront.net
127.0.0.1 d3rt1990lpmkn.cloudfront.net
127.0.0.1 doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ds.serving-sys.com
127.0.0.1 googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 gtssl2-ocsp.geotrust.com
127.0.0.1 js.moatads.com
127.0.0.1 omaze.com
127.0.0.1 pagead46.l.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 partner.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 redirector.gvt1.com
127.0.0.1 s0.2mdn.net
127.0.0.1 securepubads.g.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 tpc.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 v.jwpcdn.com
127.0.0.1 video-ad-stats.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 https://www.techattend.com
127.0.0.1 http://www.googletagservices.com
127.0.0.0 gads.pubmatic.com
Yep thanks for the updated list Johan, this list works perfect!
Johan, great modification! Works beautifully here on my linux system. Thanks.
Works seamlessly in both my Windows and Ubuntu, but in Windows when i tried to download a file from Google Drive on a browser its download nothing. Then i remove the “googletagservices.com” lines and its works again. Just FYI.
Hey,
I tried doing this on my PC but no luck!
Could it be because of my location (India)???
If yes, can you add Indian add servers too?? (or) how can I find Indian ad servers?
Thanks in advance!
Try again list updated again, new DNS entries added. Don’t forget to edit your HOSTS file again 🙂
Hey thanks for the quick response. I see that you have added 0.0.0.0 spclient.wg.spotify.com. Though the ads are gone the “Friends Activity” tab isnt working.
I was wondering if any info from my pc’s c:\Windows\System32\activity.txt could be of any help
I hav got a couple of variations of this in there
TCP 192.168.0.***:**** 53.224.186.35.bc.googleusercontent.com:https CLOSE_WAIT
also these .deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com:http TIME_WAIT
server-54-230-191-157.maa3.r.cloudfront.net:https CLOSE_WAIT
maa03s23-in-f14.1e100.net
maa05s06-in-f4.1e100.net:https ESTABLISHED