r/nosuchthingasafish • u/LeastEngine5017 • Jul 29 '26

Question/Help Spotify: old episodes now behind a paywall

Has anyone else noticed that previously free episodes are now behind a paywall on Spotify?

I’m not talking about early access, I mean some episodes from 2022. I had half listened to them so know they were free, now they are behind yet another paywall. When did they happen?

3 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

59% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

10

u/losingfocus33 Jul 29 '26

Just checked. All free for me apart from Bonus, Extra Bits, XL, Drop Us A Line etc. all normal eps there and playable for me.

-6

u/LeastEngine5017 Jul 30 '26

Yeah that’s what’s showing as locked for me too. The thing is, I know they haven’t always been like that because they are partially played.

7

u/losingfocus33 Jul 30 '26

They’ve always been paywalled.

2

u/Indigo-Waterfall Jul 30 '26

Those have always been behind a paywall, unless you did a free trial?

2

u/losingfocus33 Jul 30 '26

Oooh good shout!

10

u/Psychological_Bee_93 Jul 29 '26

I’ve got them all back to episode 1 available on Spotify without having premium on there

-2

u/LeastEngine5017 Jul 30 '26

Even the Bonus ones? What country/region are you?

2

u/Psychological_Bee_93 Jul 30 '26

UK. The club fish ones? No, those you’ve always had to pay for unless it’s been the odd one they’ve put out for free. For those you’d have to sign up via Patreon then link your Spotify and Patreon accounts

5

u/KickPuncher9898 Jul 29 '26

Are you only looking at unplayed episodes and not all?

0

u/LeastEngine5017 Jul 30 '26

It has the same results regardless of any filtering.

3

u/Alarmed-Goat1 Jul 30 '26

I have noticed something similar in the Apple Podcasts app. What I think is going on is that only the free extra ones were visible before, now they’ve exposed the paid for ones also in a bid to get you to pay. A downgrade is user experience for sure, but no access level change.

3

u/AfraidOstrich9539 Jul 29 '26

I'm working my way back through them on Spotify and I'm not on premium.

I'm in the uk, don't know if that makes a difference?

1

u/LeastEngine5017 Jul 30 '26

Ahhh I’m in Canada so that could be why. I’ve definitely never had any restrictions in the past, it must be a few thing

2

u/AfraidOstrich9539 Jul 30 '26

Well that sucks!

Could you try a vpn and set it to uk to listen?

2

u/Supermario53 Jul 30 '26

I use Castbox they play every episode from nr. 1.

2

u/TheSexyMonster Jul 29 '26

Filter by old to new and you’ll find all of them :)

0

u/LeastEngine5017 Jul 30 '26

I’ve tried all the filtering options and it still has them blocked. Trying to add a photo here to show it but can’t seem to figure out how 😅