Spotify IPO documents reveal 2 million users used third-party apps to suppress advertisements

To suppress advertisements in the free Spotify app, about two million users resorted to unofficial apps to listen to music without being interrupted by commercial breaks. The company itself writes this in the documents filed for the company's planned IPO on the 3rd of April this year.

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About two million users accounts for 2.3% of the Spotify users without a Premium subscription for the music streaming service.  Users can choose to use Spotify with a paid Premium account or a free account. Free account users will regularly hear commercials between tracks.

Earlier this month, Spotify announced it would disable the account of users who listen to the service using an unofficial app. The company sent emails to users with 'hacked' accounts for which the company detected 'abnormal activity'.

The company hasn't deleted the accounts, if users sign-in to the official Spotify app, their account continues to work.

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Spotify claims it's world's largest streaming music service, followed by Apple Music. The company's most recent numbers indicate 159 million users worldwide of which 88 million are free accounts.

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