Spotify recently broke news when word got out that the company may be buying out its rival, SoundCloud. Now, the music streaming platform has made waves again, but with a setback instead of a success.
Spotify Free – the limited version of the software that’s free for all users – has been infecting listeners’ computers with viruses through its advertisements. The advertisements periodically play throughout the user’s listening within the free service.
The viruses affected Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems.
A post from the Spotify community said when open, the program would launch the default Web browser and subsequently direct the listener to malware-filled websites.
PSA: uninstall Spotify free, their ads are plagued with malware right now. pic.twitter.com/DUOqDrnDUZ
— Volp (@VolpRS) October 5, 2016
@SpotifyCares Yesterday the Spotify Free software started launching malware on my Mac’s Safari on its own. Many have the same experience atm
— Taru Kalvi (@tarukalvi) October 5, 2016
Spotify claimed the problem was being caused by one particular advert, which they have since removed, according to The Telegraph.
“We’ve identified an issue where a small number of users were experiencing a problem with questionable website pop-ups in their default browsers as a result of an isolated issue with an ad on our Free tier,” Spotify said. “We have now identified the source of the problem and have shut it down.”
A similar incident involving malware-ridden ads occurred in 2011 as well.