Pirated MP3 Files used by Spotify during early stages

Famous music streaming portal Spotify, that made an entry into the music scenario claiming to be an answer to music piracy might have been launched with a number of pirated MP3s which include some that were exclusively available on the Pirate Bay, according to a member of Sweden’s infamous Piratbyran(piracy bureau). Rasmus Fleischer who is an author, researcher, debater and musician, is writing a book with 4 others called Spotify Teardown – Inside the Black Box of Streaming Music which hopes to unveil the story behind Spotify’s existence while revealing some of its deepest, darkest secrets.

Although the book is set to arrive next year, some of its findings were discussed about in an interview with Swedish publication DI. A lot of it included innovations made to prevent download based music. However some parts were slightly different from the official history! He claimed that the beta version of Spotify was originally a pirate service and included mp3 files that employees uploaded from their hard drives. He further stated that a band that had exclusively posted its tracks on The Pirate Bay found a copy of those tracks on Spotify’s beta offering a few days later. Fleischer emphasized that Spotify’s rise was directly related to the temporary downfall of the Pirate Bay and the following lawsuits. The peer-to-peer(P2P) technology used by Spotify was the same technology used by various Pirate sites. Moreover the platform was free like a lot of Pirate sites which made users habituated to accessing free MP3s. Read More