At least 2 million users have accessed Spotify’s ad-free service without paying

Spotify has revealed that at least 2 million users have used their free streaming service with apps that blocked ads, essentially hacking into their premium format without paying. The news, reported by Variety, comes as part of the company's risk assessment ahead of their public offering, which is set for 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 in an amended F-1 filing on Friday. The fake premium users make up 1.3 percent of their total users, bringing their previously reported numbers down from 159 million to 157 million.

Of the previously reported number, Spotify said “we currently do not have, and may never have, the requisite data available to adjust such key performance indicators and other metrics prior to January 1, 2017, and as a result, such key performance indicators and other metrics for such periods may be overstated.”