Multiple reports of Spotify Free ads launching malware, including in Safari on Mac

There have been multiple reports of Spotify Free ads launching malware on all platforms – including in Safari on Macs. This is not the first time the issue has occurred, the company apologising after a previous incident back in 2011 …

@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 has responded to a report in its support forum, stating that it has an investigating team ‘currently looking into this.’

One developer has tweeted logs of some of the sites involved.

PSA: uninstall Spotify free, their ads are plagued with malware right now. pic.twitter.com/DUOqDrnDUZ

— Volp (@VolpRS) October 5, 2016

TNW notes that while the original report was on a Windows 10 machine, subsequent reports suggest that it is a cross-platform problem, affecting macOS and Linux machines also.

If confirmed, it won’t help the company’s competition with Apple Music. While recent subscriber stats show that Spotify’s growth is outpacing that of Apple Music, that’s due to its head-start giving it a higher base. Apple appears to have a slight edge in percentage growth. Spotify is also said to be struggling to strike long-term deals with music labels.

Apple and Spotify have been engaged in a very public battle over whether or not the Cupertino company is anti-competitively favoring its own streaming service.