ONLINE MUSIC SERVICE Spotify has apologised for running an advert in Europe that contained a virus.

Last Thursday and Friday an ad containing malware was displayed to Spotify Free and Open customers in the UK, Sweden, France and Spain, which are most of the countries where the service operates. The virus targeted users running Windows.

Spotify revealed that as soon as it became aware of the problem it removed all third party ads from its service. Then it discovered which ad contained the malware and removed it, but it did not reveal the nature of the advert, which might have helped to prevent subsequent incidents elsewhere on the web.

The company apologised to those affected and said it will work hard to ensure that a similar issue does not happen again. It added that users with anti-virus software should be okay, but it linked to security tools and guidelines for those who think their computers might have been infected.