A loophole in Spotify allowed underground remixers to upload remixed songs of the famous artists on Spotify’s platform, disguised as podcast episodes. They did so in the hopes to surpass the platform’s copyright and infringement detection. Before Spotify, streaming services like YouTube and SoundCloud were the most popular choices for uploading bootleg versions of popular songs.
By typing simple search terms like ‘remix’ and ‘mashup’ on Spotify, users can hunt down these bootlegged remix versions of famous artists
One of the music-streaming platform users also uploaded the unreleased version of the ‘Sugarfish’ song written by Late rapper Juice WRLD, for which he collaborated with The Chainsmokers. In their statement, the company cautioned that their platform is strictly ‘not a music redistribution tool’, and those who want to deliver music can do so at the Spotify Artist platform. The company also stated that they take copyright infringement very seriously, and have multiple measures to monitor and deal with such activities. Moreover, the company is continuously investing heavily in refining and improving the detection methods of such infringement, in order to reduce the impact of such actions on legitimate artists or right holders.