This is an independent, unofficial guide and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or maintained by the BlockTheSpot project maintainers. Official project on GitHub ↗
If you're using the free tier of Spotify on a Windows PC, you already know the pattern: a few tracks in, the music cuts to an ad, and banner promos crowd the Home screen. BlockTheSpot fixes that by replacing a couple of files inside your Spotify installation. Here's exactly how that works, step by step, plus what the config file actually controls.
What BlockTheSpot actually does
Unlike a browser extension, BlockTheSpot doesn't run alongside Spotify as a separate process — it's applied once, directly to the desktop client's own files, so ad code paths and telemetry calls never execute in the first place. Two files do the work: blockthespot.dll (the patch itself) and a renamed copy of Spotify's own chrome_elf.dll that loads it, plus a config.ini that tells the patch what to target. It's Windows-only, and only for the standalone desktop app — not the Microsoft Store version of Spotify.
Step 1: Close Spotify completely
Quit Spotify from the taskbar or system tray, and check Task Manager to confirm no Spotify.exe process is still running. The files you're about to replace can't be touched while Spotify has them open.
Step 2: Find your Spotify folder
Open File Explorer and go to %APPDATA%\Spotify — paste that directly into the address bar. This is your local install folder, separate from your Spotify account; nothing here touches your login or your account settings.
Step 3: Rename chrome_elf.dll
Find chrome_elf.dll in that folder and rename it to chrome_elf_required.dll. This keeps Spotify's original file in place (needed later if you ever want to revert) while making room for the patched version.
Step 4: Add the patch files
From the official releases page, download a new chrome_elf.dll, blockthespot.dll, and the latest config.ini, then drop all three into the same %APPDATA%\Spotify folder. Get these only from the official repository — not a third-party re-upload — since you're placing executable code directly into an app you use daily.
Step 5: Relaunch Spotify
Reopen Spotify. Audio ads between tracks, banner ads on the Home and search screens, and the upgrade-to-Premium button should all be gone immediately.
What's actually inside config.ini
This isn't a simple on/off settings file — it's the patch's instruction set, and reading it tells you a lot about how the whole thing works:
[Log]— a verbosity level for troubleshooting (0 disabled, 1 info, 2 debug).[Developer]— the core signature/offset patch that flips Spotify's internal "ads enabled" flag.[URL_block]— a plain list of endpoint paths to block outright, including ad requests and telemetry endpoints.[LIBCEF]— offsets used to disable crash-reporter traffic (Block_crashpad) at the embedded browser layer.[Buffer_modify]— targets specific JavaScript bundle files inside Spotify's interface for things like the mini-player and upgrade button.
Most people never need to hand-edit this file — the defaults cover everything in our features breakdown — but because it's plain text rather than a compiled setting, you can verify exactly what's being patched before you ever run anything, which is exactly the kind of transparency we cover in more depth here.
Updating after a new Spotify release
Spotify ships frequent client updates, and an update can silently overwrite these patched files, bringing ads back. When that happens, repeat steps 1–5 using a fresh download of all three files matched to the current release — don't reuse files from months ago. If ads are still there afterward, or Spotify won't open at all, see our troubleshooting guide.
Using it alongside Spicetify
If you also use Spicetify to customize Spotify's appearance, apply BlockTheSpot first, then Spicetify on top — see our guide to using them together for the recommended order and what to re-check after updates.
What about macOS, Linux, or mobile?
This guide covers Windows, the only officially supported platform. If you're on a Mac, a Linux distro, Android, or iPhone, see our full platform compatibility breakdown for what's actually possible on each.