> 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.

[1] https://www.spotify.com/us/premium/

Looks like they have a deal right now - 3 months for a buck.