Spotify Launches Crackdown on Tools Offering Premium Service For Free

[Matrix]

 

Spotify has filed a wave of DMCA takedown notices with Google in an effort to remove links to software claiming to offer a premium experience without paying. In many of its complaints Spotify warns that the company believes that the tools are intended to be used as "instruments of fraud".

 

Spotify is currently the most popular music streaming platform in the world with 286 million users. An impressive 130 million subscribe to the company’s premium service with the remainder using the ad-supported tier.

 

Somewhere in those figures are a small minority who enjoy the features of Spotify Premium but yet manage to do so without paying the subscription fees charged by the company. This is achieved by deploying various hacks and workarounds that remove the restrictions imposed on users of the ad-supported service.

 

In many cases this means users obtaining a hacked variant of the Spotify software, often on the Android platform. These applications don’t subject users to adverts and in some cases claim to enable other features such as unlimited track skipping and a departure from enforced shuffling.

 

Needless to say, Spotify views these applications as a threat to its business model. The company has previously taken action against specific tools in an effort to make them harder to find but more recently the Swedish streaming service appears to have stepped up its efforts.

 

Beginning back in March but increasing as the weeks have passed, Spotify AB has been sending DMCA notices to Google targeting domains that appear to be offering the types of tools highlighted above.

 

Torrentfreak learned of the complaints from a third-party and we were able to track many of them down using the Lumen Database repository.

 

The majority targeted at Google’s search indexes contain similar wording, with claims that the domains in question are infringing on Spotify’s intellectual property rights. However, the company goes further still with allegations that the tools are designed for fraudulent purposes.

 

“This site uses Spotify intellectual property in its content without authorization and this falsely suggests Spotify sponsorship or endorsement of the website and violates Spotify exclusive rights,” many read.

 

“We reasonably believe that it is the intention of its owners to use it as an instrument of fraud.”

 

 

At the time of writing Spotify has targeted at least 20 domains with requests like this one to remove more than 60 URLs. Many seem to be so-called APK download sites or similar platforms giving hints and tips about how to obtain Spotify and indeed other services for free, with accompanying links.

 

However, when testing the domains in the numerous takedown notices our interest was piqued by at least one that triggered a Malwarebytes ‘fraud’ alert. Spotify took a particular interest in this domain by targeting 14 of its URLs, which raises the question of what type of fraud is taking place on the site.

 

 

Spotify appears to use the term in connection with using its intellectual property and accessing its platform in an unauthorized manner but it wouldn’t be a huge stretch to think that something even more nefarious might be at play with some modified APK files available online today.

 

In the vast majority of cases, Google has complied by delisting the requested URLs. At the time of writing there are a handful of more recent Spotify complaints marked as pending a decision (1,2,3)but it would be no surprise if they were removed during the days to come.

 

Source

[steven36]

They blocked my free account  that i had  since 2014. Not sure  if it's because i use  spotify-adblock-linux  on there desktop app or if it's because one time i messed  with  that tool that  removed the drm from there  songs  . But really how could a free  user take them serious it took me two minutes to sign up again using disposable email and i'm still blocking  there ads and i  will kep making burner accounts just to spite them  if they block me again . The webplayer that you use in browsers when you play a song it skips after about a few seconds  it been a bug for many years and many people have reported it and they want fix it so  you really don't have choice but to use a app   or use some other service .  This site is a prime example of a service  that does it's free users bad that i will never buy .  😎

[Alanon]

@steven36 I remember when users of Spotify Dogfood back in the day had their accounts blocked, so my money's on the DRM magic you were doing. Adguard was always great at blocking ads on the web player and on the desktop client, and I never had issues while I was using it, but that was a while back. It sure seems like they're stepping up their game. I might have to go check on my free account and see how it's doing.

 

I also remember hearing about people using family plans to save money all getting blocked at the same time, so it seems Spotify really wants you to pay full price. I guess it makes sense given the asinine growth model they're expected to meet, and seeing the ludicrous amounts of money they've given to Joe Rogan, they're gonna need every penny they can squeeze out of their users.

 

Luckily, I switched to Deezer since it's free with my carrier plan, and I never looked back.

[steven36]

9 hours ago, Mach1 said:

Spotify is currently the most popular music streaming platform in the world with 286 million users. An impressive 130 million subscribe to the company’s premium service with the remainder using the ad-supported tier.

That's simply not  true thats just fake PR Spotify would like you to believe.   there  just the biggest  paid  streaming  platform but there  user base is just a drop  in the bucket compared  to the 1 billion  of  the 2 billion YouTubers that visit YouTube just  for music.

 

Not Spotify, not Apple Music, not SoundCloud. Definitely not Tidal, Pandora or Amazon. For young listeners, YouTube is their radio (widely accessible), their record store (awesomely vast), their MTV (partly retinal), their Walkman (completely portable), their iTunes (on demand), their online message board (comments abound) — all in one place. And the numbers bear it out. One billion visitors come to YouTube for music each month, according to Google. What a bizarre triumph for a company so eager to obsolesce our televisions. As the streaming wars rage into the future, a site that never really intended to become a music platform accidentally became our most visited, most variegated music platform.

 

That means we can’t think of YouTube just as a business. We need to think of it as a listening experience.

---

Source https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-did-youtube-become-the-most-popular-music-streaming-site-by-sounding-like-the-world-itself/2019/07/30/f7428388-afdd-11e9-8e77-03b30bc29f64_story.html

 

That the 1 billion  users  that sign in every month that they can keep track  of  there habits that not counting  all the people that  go to YouTube  and listen to music not signed in . No one really knows how many people use YouTube because  they don't require you   to sign in to listen to music  also there is 3rd party apps you can use and listen to only the audio if you don't want to watch the video or you can just download the audio lol.

 

On top of that YouTube music paid is  growing leaps  and bounds  it growing much faster than Spotify  that hit a growth bubble with  4 billion people on the internet  it would be very easy for another music service  to pass Spotify  with paid users in the long run.

 

YouTube Music Is Exploding in Popularity

 

And the music streaming app has a lot more room left to grow.

 

The Alphabet (subsidiary grew its music streaming app from fewer than 8 million active users at the end of 2017, to more than 77 million active users by the end of 2019, according to data from App Annie.

 

 

Much of that growth stems from launches in developing markets like India and Brazil, that capitalizes on the popularity of its free video streaming platform on mobile.

 

Source: https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/01/21/youtube-music-is-exploding-in-popularity.aspx

 

Tencent  is the 2nd biggest music  streaming platform after YouTube . that makes Spotify  the 3rd most popular  .And YouTube is 2nd in subscribers now.

 

Here are the facts not PR  but facts  free users  way out number  paid users.

 

Spotify: 286 million users / 130 million subscribers updated source in the OP.

Apple Music: 60m subscribers

Amazon Music: 55m customers

Tencent Music: 661m users / 35.4m paying users

YouTube Music: 1bn music users / 77m subscribers updated source above

Pandora: 63.5m users / 6.2m subscribers

SoundCloud: 175m users

Deezer: 14m users / 7m subscribers

Gaana: 152m users / 1m subscribers

JioSaavn: 104m users

Anghami: 21m users / more than 1m subscribers

 

Global stats 2020 report : There are now 341 million users of paid streaming services worldwide, up 34% on 2018.

 

Sources: https://musically.com/2020/02/19/spotify-apple-how-many-users-big-music-streaming-services/

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/01/21/youtube-music-is-exploding-in-popularity.aspx

https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-launches-crackdown-on-tools-offering-premium-service-for-free-200524/

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/9370682/ifpi-global-report-2020-music-sales-paid-streaming-coronavirus-impact

 

There is Four billion, five hundred seventy million users online in 2020

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/

 

 

That means there four billion two hundred twenty-nine million people on the internet  that don't pay for music streaming .

 

Google  just helping themselves  by taking down links for  Spotify  if you have to deal with ads you  may as will  use YouTube  . YouTube and  Spotify are both OK for finding new music but buying no .  once  i like something I use  apps , torrents and blogs to download it in high quality  and listen to it  local with Strawberry Music Player  no internet needed .  Let them fight it out while i fill  my drives up .