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Spotify Used 'Pirate' MP3 Files In Its Early Days: Report (torrentfreak.com)
According to Rasmus Fleischer, one of the early The Pirate Bay figures, Spotify used unlicensed music in its early days. From a report: "Spotify's beta version was originally a pirate service. It was distributing MP3 files that the employees happened to have on their hard drives," he reveals. Rumors that early versions of Spotify used 'pirate' MP3s have been floating around the Internet for years. People who had access to the service in the beginning later reported downloading tracks that contained 'Scene' labeling, tags, and formats, which are the tell-tale signs that content hadn't been obtained officially. Solid proof has been more difficult to come by but Fleischer says he knows for certain that Spotify was using music obtained not only from pirate sites, but the most famous pirate site of all.
... Pandora: Your one true source of legitimately paid for music.
Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
https://news.slashdot.org/stor...
Almost like this was a planted counter article...
When your proof is restricted to " but Fleischer says he knows for certain " you have no proof and you should probably refrain from slandering a company with more lawyers then you.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Rare form for the record labels! Think of all the revenue they could have lost out on had they stuck to their tried and true tactics? (that is shutting down spotify with a series of lawsuits)
They're slipping towards survival apparently.
So, despite my sig, I browsed TFA.
It appears the only evidence provided is that one artist who had chosen to distribute via The Pirate Bay turned up on Spotify. Oh, and also a Pirate Bay dude saying "oh yeah, I know this is a fact".
That argument seems kind of tenuous. It's like saying that all of my music was downloaded from artists' websites simply because I own Radiohead's "In Rainbows".
#DeleteChrome
And we care...why?
At this point is is one of the top music sites, loved by millions. SOmehow I really doubt any of those millions will go "Oh Fuck. God, now I can't listen to Spotify any more because they cheated in the beginning. Back to 45s for me".
Now a better story would have been of Spotify used the blood of RIAA executives to perform a dark ritual that helped them get the funding they needed to make it a viable business.
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
back in the day. Media companies grew on the backs of and money stolen from music artists.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
My thoughts exactly. Oh if only for a bit more transparency - I have no idea who to trust or support anymore. Dumped my Amazon and Comcast accounts recently though - feels good!
I worked in IT at XM when it launched and we spent a lot of time hunting down these shadow-IT caches of of MP3s. Mad props to them for taking it seriously even back 16 years ago.
This doesn't change that they have been legit since.
Just like how Napster went "legit" after being a pirate software for years.
This was a scandal in the news years ago when they got popular. This therefore is not news today, move along people.
So are we even sure it's not legal...
As long as you pay license fees who cares where you get the recording?
I use TIDAL , where i sniff many vaginas for a fair monthly rate
If they acquired the license to the music, but obtained the music from an unofficial source, they still have the right to distribute it.
Programmers used convenient files for early phase testing, film at eleven. I'm shocked, shocked to find that downloading is going on in here!
If you want to give them money, there's usually someone willing to talk to you.
If you want something from them; like, for example, adequate quality mp3 files, you just need to fill in these 32 forms, get authorisation from 17 different departments, one of which was abolished 5 years ago, and once you manage that, you get a mono WMA file recorded at 8kHz.
...I installed the linux version of this a couple of days ago so I could see what people at my old job are listening to (we had a shared playlist that everyone could add to). All went well and I could see they were (still) listening to crap music. But later I started getting facebook crap in my inbox and I deactivated that rubbish years ago. It seems that it cheekily reactivates facebook. Not happy at all.
As long as you properly pay for the usage it does not matter where it came from.