There’s a huge number of users on Spotify who use only the free accounts because they essentially get what they want from a streaming service without paying for it. The biggest problem for many of these users is the adverts, which many (approximately 2 million) block with third party apps – effectively pirating the music.
As such Spotify have today updated their terms of service to crack down on the use of ad blocking to protect their income by stating:
circumventing or blocking advertisements in the Spotify Service, or creating or distributing tools designed to block advertisements
Which essentially means – if you block ads, Spotify will block you! It is unclear how Spotify intend to implement this new policy but we are sure that will shake out in the coming weeks.
It’s difficult to blame Spotify for this: users paying for the service and the ads served to free customers contribute to their income (and this is where the money they pay artists and labels comes from). This change in terms of service comes after their paying user-base increased by 9 million users in Q4 of 2018, where the streaming giant solidified their position atop the tree.
The lesson here is simple, live with the ads or pay for the service.
I wonder how many days it will be, before the first reports of paying ad-blocking users, being blocked by Spotify’s anti-adblocker, surfaces.