Spotify, the ad-funded music streaming service, is removing an undisclosed number of songs from its library after it was revealed they were breaching licensing restrictions.

The Swedish company, which is still in closed beta, said some tracks on the service had slipped through restrictions theoretically employed when deals with record labels had been made.

Additionally, Spotify said other tracks had been delivered by labels despite the insistence of bands to not include their music.

Spotify is now implementing the appropriate geo-restrictions as laid out in the licensing agreements and also removing certain tracks.

In a blog post, community manager Andres Sehr said, “We have not lost any licenses and no labels have stopped working with us, this is just a matter of updating our catalogue to be in line with the agreements we actually have.

“In hindsight it would have been better to remove this in October when we launched publicly, we realise this now and apologise to you for not doing it sooner,” he added.