4 ms·

They are, and that's exactly why music piracy fell off a cliff in the streaming era and movie/tv piracy didn't. "Piracy is a service problem" -- Gabe Newell

by paol 11mo ago

b3lvedere 11mo ago
If i'm not mistaken the people behind Spotify were also some of the people behind The Pirate Bay, so they may have had some seriously good insights on how to treat your customers.
- thatcat 11mo ago
  it was what.cd, which is how they got their original comprehensive catalog so fast
  - lfam 11mo ago
    Citation?
    - tmerc 11mo ago
      Not OP: https://gizmodo.com/early-spotify-was-built-on-pirated-mp3-files-new-book-1795109991 https://gizmodo.com/early-spotify-was-built-on-pirated-mp3-f...
      - pseudalopex 11mo ago
        The article said the Spotify CEO was CEO of uTorrent. And Spotify used files employees got from The Pirate Bay. Not what the HN comments claimed.
    - thatcat 11mo ago
      To clarify I'm not suggesting owners of what.cd started spotify just some elite members. I happened to join what.cd before Spotify came out and the tracker was shut down. Initially spotify overlapped with what.cds comprehensive library of rare high quality audio significantly and as they moved out of grey market, over the first year or so, some were removed after complaints or contracts were signed with artists. Then what.cd servers were seized for copyright infingement and other trackers tried to replace it. To download that much data from their platform you'd need to have shared a significant amount yourself for years. They probably used pirate bay and other less comprehensive libraries as well, but the high quality lossless audio that you paid for was likely from what.cd. This was discussed on those tracker forums and irc during that time.
- KoftaBob 11mo ago
  You're thinking of Daniel Elk (Spotify co-founder and CEO) and Ludvig Strigeus, who ran uTorrent before building Spotify.
  - b3lvedere 11mo ago
    Thanks!
ThatMedicIsASpy 11mo ago
The music streaming services are also the easiest way to pirate music.
CuriouslyC 11mo ago
I used to be a big digital music hoarder. I hate Spotify, YouTube is the thing that killed music downloading for me. It has pretty much everything worth listening to, it's free, AdBlock keeps it usable, and it has a great diversity of other content.

They are, and that's exactly why music piracy fell off a cliff in the streaming era and movie/tv piracy didn't. "Piracy is a service problem" -- Gabe Newell

by paol 11mo ago

They are, and that's exactly why music piracy fell off a cliff in the streaming era and movie/tv piracy didn't. "Piracy is a service problem" -- Gabe Newell

b3lvedere 11mo ago

If i'm not mistaken the people behind Spotify were also some of the people behind The Pirate Bay, so they may have had some seriously good insights on how to treat your customers.

thatcat 11mo ago
it was what.cd, which is how they got their original comprehensive catalog so fast
- lfam 11mo ago
  Citation?
  - tmerc 11mo ago
    Not OP: https://gizmodo.com/early-spotify-was-built-on-pirated-mp3-files-new-book-1795109991 https://gizmodo.com/early-spotify-was-built-on-pirated-mp3-f...
    - pseudalopex 11mo ago
      The article said the Spotify CEO was CEO of uTorrent. And Spotify used files employees got from The Pirate Bay. Not what the HN comments claimed.
  - thatcat 11mo ago
    To clarify I'm not suggesting owners of what.cd started spotify just some elite members. I happened to join what.cd before Spotify came out and the tracker was shut down. Initially spotify overlapped with what.cds comprehensive library of rare high quality audio significantly and as they moved out of grey market, over the first year or so, some were removed after complaints or contracts were signed with artists. Then what.cd servers were seized for copyright infingement and other trackers tried to replace it. To download that much data from their platform you'd need to have shared a significant amount yourself for years. They probably used pirate bay and other less comprehensive libraries as well, but the high quality lossless audio that you paid for was likely from what.cd. This was discussed on those tracker forums and irc during that time.
KoftaBob 11mo ago
You're thinking of Daniel Elk (Spotify co-founder and CEO) and Ludvig Strigeus, who ran uTorrent before building Spotify.
- b3lvedere 11mo ago
  Thanks!

ThatMedicIsASpy 11mo ago

The music streaming services are also the easiest way to pirate music.

CuriouslyC 11mo ago

I used to be a big digital music hoarder. I hate Spotify, YouTube is the thing that killed music downloading for me. It has pretty much everything worth listening to, it's free, AdBlock keeps it usable, and it has a great diversity of other content.