When Spotify's contract with Sony Music leaked, it emerged that, as well as granting Sony a credit for advertising inventory (i.e. free ad impressions), Spotify

When Spotify's contract with Sony Music leaked, it emerged that, as well as granting Sony a credit for advertising inventory (i.e. free ad impressions), Spotify must "offer a portion of its available unsold ad inventory to Sony Music for free to allow the label to promote its own artists."[1] It's not unreasonable to assume that other labels (like Universal) have a similar deal, so those adverts you're seeing may well be unsold ad inventory that has been given to Universal to promote their own artists. So, I'd question your assumption that Universal is paying for those ads. 1: http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/19/8621581/sony-music-spotify-contract http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/19/8621581/sony-music-spotify...