Spotify’s Beta Used ‘Pirate’ MP3 Files, Some from Pirate Bay

One thing I noticed a few years ago, was that Spotify was using a massive amount more upload bandwidth than download. Upon digging it actually appeared they were streaming FROM my computer, similar to how a torrenting system works. I'm assuming their current platform is doing something similar.

If this is indeed the case, they can stream music to everyone's phones / computers, then use their network to stream to their other customers. It's truly brilliant, and saves them tons on network costs. At the same time, it is somewhat disingenuous to me - hence I'll never go back.

It's not at all surprising that their initial "success" is tied to torrenting as well.

EDIT: Yes I know they supposidly stopped this program [1]. I still thought I should share it, as many people don't/didn't know (and it is relevant to the article).

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/17/spotify-removes-peer-to-pe...

Spotify apparently stopped their P2P distribution a few years ago:

https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-starts-shutting-down-its-ma...

They removed P2P streaming around 2014[0].

[0] https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/17/spotify-removes-peer-to-pe...

They used to use peer-to-peer to speed up music download (and reduce the load on their servers, presumably) but I believe that it is no longer the case: https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-starts-shutting-down-its-ma...

Actually it's mentioned in the article itself: "The technology deployed by Spotify was also familiar. Like the majority of ‘pirate’ platforms at the time, Spotify operated a peer-to-peer (P2P) system which grew to become one of the largest on the Internet. It was shut down in 2011."

The date appears to be wrong though, since the other sources (including the linked article) are from 2014.

> hence I'll never go back.

So basically, you're saying that since they (according to you) weren't plastering news about their P2P design across all their marketing (as if most people would even be able to understand that, from a marketing perspective), and DESPITE the fact that it was well-known enough for academic papers in 2011 to be written on the design (http://pansentient.com/2011/04/spotify-technology-some-stats...), that's why you'll never return to them, even though they've since entirely removed that functionality? Because you never heard of that part of the design until you detected it on your own network?

This isn't someone "robbing your bandwidth" IMHO, I'm not for example angry when I torrent something open-source and have it set to reupload 2x what I downloaded... In fact here's Netflix debating going to a P2P design in 2014: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/netfl...

If I torrented for a year ("as a downloader") without realizing how it worked, and then found out it was uploading what I already downloaded, would I have the right to be indignant about my own ignorance?

That said, a lot of new endeavours (especially on the Internet) have questionable legality when they first emerge (mp3 scene, bitcoin, digital content distribution in general, etc) and then acquire legitimacy later on. It's fine (... I guess?) to feel unlimited righteous indignation about a company (I feel that way about Microsoft, actually), but it's not fine IMHO if it's not based on reality.