Spotify admits 2 million users have been accessing ad-free service without paying

Spotify has revealed that at least 2 million users are accessing their their ad-free service without paying.

The music streaming service offers a free version supported by ads, and a Premium version – which is £9.99/month in the UK – which allows users to listen ad-free and download music to listen to offline.

However 2 million users have managed to access an ad-free service by using unauthorised ad-blocking apps.

Spotify revealed the findings as part of their risk assessment, ahead of their public offering on April 3.

“On March 21, 2018, we detected instances of approximately two million users as of December 31, 2017, who have been suppressing advertisements without payment,” the company said on Friday (March 23).

The fraudulent users represent 1.3% of the service’s previously reported 159 million active monthly users, bringing them down to 157 million.

Legitimate Premium subscribers make up 71 million of those.

The streaming company officially revealed their plans to go public last month – it will trade on New York Stock Exchange under the name ‘SPOT’.

It was also recently revealed that a Bulgarian Spotify user could have manipulated the service to get themselves a payout of almost $1 million, via a playlist of short, unknown tracks.

It’s thought the user used paid-for, premium accounts to get enough plays on the tracks to generate a huge profit.

Meanwhile, Apple Music director Jimmy Iovine recently lamented that music streaming services are “too similar”.