Want your Spotify account to remain? Better disable that Adblocker

Releasing a new version of their terms of service, Spotify has promised to take a harder stance on ad blockers, bots and fraudulent streaming activities, starting March 1st. 

Ad blockers have always been an easy loophole for consumers, and a headache for publishers. The company confirmed in March last year that it had 2,000,000 users using ad blockers on the free version of Spotify. While that sounds a lot, it's only 1.3% of Spotify's total user base, yet it warrants enough attention as it restates usage metrics. 

The new guidelines specify that “circumventing or blocking advertisements in the Spotify Service, or creating and distributing tools designed to block advertisements in the Spotify Service” may now result in “immediate termination or suspension of your Spotify account.”

During its last quarter earning report announcement yesterday, Spotify shows positive income and free cash flow for the first time since it was founded. Revenue, however, was below expectations because of intense competition from other streaming services, with subscribers increasing 36 percent to 96 million. Paid subscriptions now compose nearly 88% of Spotify's turnover - which is why Spotify wants to release the potential of ad supported revenue. And with Spotify's actual user base of 153,000,000 people across the world (and expanding), ad supported revenue can really bring in the billions. 

Facebook login for Spotify

I was so glad to see this Mashable article on Spotify now requiring facebook login to use their service as this is something that really bugs me.

Yes, I'm a facebook user. However I religiously avoid facebook apps - I know there's already a ton of information out there about me, but I just don't see the point in linking it all together into one platform where my every move on the internet is tied to my facebook account (that's what Google is for). I hate websites that require you to login with your facebook account - its never clear whether they're going to post things on my wall, contact my friends, advertise to me or add me to their mailing list.

When facebook login first came out, I remember everyone being really excited over consolidating accounts - now you don't have to create a username and password for every site you want to interact with. But in today's world of phishing/hacking, do we really want one login to grant access to all those sites as well?

I'm really torn on this issue, but at least in the past I always had the option to log in with an email. Spotify's move to require a facebook login makes me nervous - is this the new direction for websites? Is this a good thing? I welcome disagreement and discussion on this, because I definitely could be swayed in either direction. See article below:

Should Spotify Users Be Required to Have Facebook Accounts? [POLL]
Posted: 26 Sep 2011 08:32 PM PDT

Spotify has come under a lot of fire for a recent decision to force users to use Facebook to sign up for its streaming music service. The change, made not long after Facebook’s f8 developer conference on Thursday, removes the option of signing up with an email address and a password. Instead, users have to use Facebook Connect.
Here’s how Spotify explained the decision in a statement:
“To us, this is all about creating an amazing new world of music discovery. As most of our users are already social and have already connected to Facebook, it seemed logical to integrate Spotify and Facebook logins. We already use Facebook as part of our backend to power our social features and by adopting Facebook’s login, we’ve created a simple and seamless social experience.”
Spotify goes on to explain that it believes the change makes it easier on the user, since they don’t have to remember yet another username and password.
SEE ALSO: Spotify Comes to Facebook [PICS]
There are a lot of people that are unhappy with the decision. The company’s GetSatisfaction account is filled with angry and confused responses:
“I just don’t get it. Before you had access to every user of the web, and now you are restricting membership to people who like and trust Facebook. If you want to make more money, improve your service, add better features and provide a better product. It’s the only way to win the freemium battle, not ridiculous moves like this.”
Spotify is trying to leverage the reach and power of the world’s largest social network to grow its user base and distinguish itself from the competition, but has it gone too far?