Why Spotify Started Out Just as Shady as Napster

Why Spotify Started Out Just as Shady as Napster

Twenty-five years after Napster got shut down, the company that replaced it built its own empire on a strikingly similar shortcut. Tech expert Carmi Levy breaks down how Napster's 80 million users forced the music industry's hand, and how Spotify quietly repeated the same playbook before settling into the legal giant it is today. It's the kind of pattern that shows up again every time a new technology threatens an old business model.

There's also a number worth knowing if a song has ever played on the radio: artists in Canada actually get paid per play, while American artists don't, meaning a hit can be worth more across the border than at home. The economics underneath every stream are smaller and stranger than the polished apps make them feel. Carmi lays out exactly where the money goes, and where it still doesn't.

The pattern that built Napster and Spotify isn't finished. Someone is already looking for the next way around it.

Topics: music piracy history, Spotify legal history, Canadian music royalties, streaming economics, Napster

GUEST: Carmi Levy

Originally aired on 2026-06-18

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(2154)

The Game That Saves Lives: Dungeons and Dragons

The Game That Saves Lives: Dungeons and Dragons

Dungeons and Dragons started in 1974 with no budget and a simple idea, and Ryan O'Donnell makes the case that it has been saving lives ever since. If you've never rolled a die, this is the episode tha...

3 Juli 9min

NEW - Borrowing Against Your Investments: Good Idea or Trap?

NEW - Borrowing Against Your Investments: Good Idea or Trap?

Wealth Simple is expanding fast and Vincent Gregoire, Canada Research Chair in Finance and Technology at HEC Montreal, is paying close attention. Lower fees and less friction are good for investors. T...

3 Juli 19min

SHIFTHEADS: 1974: Trudeau, Nixon, and 79-Cent Ground Beef

SHIFTHEADS: 1974: Trudeau, Nixon, and 79-Cent Ground Beef

Canada Day 1974 means a federal election, a sitting prime minister fighting for his majority, and a American president about to become the first to resign the office. The past has a way of arriving ri...

3 Juli 8min

NEW - Secrecy Creep: What Governments Hope You Don't File For

NEW - Secrecy Creep: What Governments Hope You Don't File For

Canadian politics commentator Rob Breakenridge joins the Canada Day long weekend to make a distinction most people skip: the country is not the same thing as the people running it, and one can be wort...

3 Juli 9min

Shiftheads - Why Protein Matters More as You Age

Shiftheads - Why Protein Matters More as You Age

Holistic nutritionist Alyssa B of nourished.ca makes the case that protein isn't a fitness trend — it's the foundation everything else depends on. Muscle protects bone. Bone protects you from the fall...

3 Juli 11min

ICYMI - Playing Pretend With Rules: A Dungeons and Dragons Primer

ICYMI - Playing Pretend With Rules: A Dungeons and Dragons Primer

Dungeons and Dragons for beginners sounds like a rulebook problem. Dean McKinnon says it's actually a playing pretend problem, and once you solve that one, everything else opens up. Dean is a professi...

3 Juli 9min

If You Were Normal in 1974, Did You Play Dungeons and Dragons?

If You Were Normal in 1974, Did You Play Dungeons and Dragons?

Flipping the script, going against the grain and breaking away from the norm. Dungeons and Dragons was crucial in setting up the counter culture of the 80s and 90s. And it started in 1974! Guest: Ed...

3 Juli 9min

Larry David Told Obama No. Canada Said Yes to Fox

Larry David Told Obama No. Canada Said Yes to Fox

Entertainment journalist Richard Crouse of http://richardcrouse.ca joins for two conversations that together cover everything worth knowing about pop culture right now — from Canada's biggest honour g...

3 Juli 19min

Populärt inom Politik & nyheter

aftonbladet-krim
svenska-fall
tv4-nyheterna-story
p3-krim
rss-krimstad
motiv
de-fyras-gang
aftonbladet-daily
flashback-forever
spar
rss-expressen-dok
rss-sanning-konsekvens
politiken
rss-vad-fan-hande
krimmagasinet
rss-krimreportrarna
kungligt
svd-dokumentara-berattelser-2
olyckan-inifran
rss-flodet