Spotify’s CEO came
from one of the largest torrent hubs on the planet. But now, there are allegations of a more
criminal connection to Swedish music piracy.
For most artists, Spotify is a gigantic black box. But maybe this platform’s history is even darker
than its confusing royalty payments.
Yesterday, researcher and author Rasmus Fleischer started
spilling the beans on years of research on Spotify. And it’s a little different from the official
company history.
Why is Fleischer doing this research? Well, he’s a Swedish PhD writing a book on
how this industry game-changer came of age.
And, he’s being financed in part by the Swedish government itself. He’s sharing
some of his findings and a lot of it involves stories of hobnobbing with
superstars and politicians, battling with major labels and innovating against
download-based piracy.
“The entire Spotify beta period and its early launch history
was propelled by the Pirate Bay,” Fleischer explained (translated from
Swedish). “They’d never have had that
much attention without the Pirate Bay happening. The company’s early history coincides with
the Pirate Party emerging as a hot topic, with the trial of the Pirate Bay in
Stockholm District Court. ”
“Spotify’s beta
service was originally a pirate service.”
But the connection goes far deeper than that. In fact, Fleischer alleges that Spotify was
directly connected with the Pirate Bay.
Literally. “Spotify’s beta
version was originally a pirate service,” Fleischer said.
“It was distributed mp3 files that the employees uploaded
from their hard drives.”
In other words, exactly the same operation that buried
competitors like Grooveshark. And to
prove it, Fleischer relayed the story of a band that specifically uploaded its
own music to the Pirate Bay. A few days
later, it found that exact music uploaded onto Spotify’s beta offering.
“That seemed strange,” Fleischer recalled. “So I emailed them and asked then how they
got that music. They simply said ‘right
now during our beta launch, we’re using whatever music we can find.”
Perhaps the big difference is that Spotify quickly shifted
into licensing discussions, while Grooveshark essentially refused. And as the power of torrenting declined, the
industry recognized that streaming services were the main reason.
And what about those playlists?
Fleischer also examined why Spotify features certain artists
on their playlists. Who picks the
winners? So far, the process appears
unclear and seemingly arbitrary, with employees sometimes choosing winners and
losers based on their personal preferences.
But Fleischer is also trying to decode playlist and recommendation
algorithms with actual users, though he hasn’t released any findings.
Spotify Teardown – Inside the Black Box of Streaming Music
will be released on MIT Press early next year.