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Spotify Emails Warning to ‘Pirates’ Using Hacked Apps


steven36

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People who access Spotify using hacked apps that remove some of the restrictions placed on free accounts are receiving warning emails from the company. Noting that "abnormal activity" has been observed from the user's software, Spotify warns that future breaches could result in suspension or even termination of a user's account.

 

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Spotify is a fantastic music streaming service used by more than 159 million users around the world. Around 71m of those are premium subscibers according to figures released by the company last December.

 

Given the above, 88 million Spotify members are using the free tier, meaning that they’re subjected to advertising and other limitations such as shuffle-only play and track skip restrictions.

 

The idea is that the free user gets a decent level of service but is held back just enough with small irritations to make the jump to a premium subscription a logical step at some point.

 

What millions of free users don’t know, however, is that there are modified Spotify apps out there that can remove many of these restrictions. All the user has to do is sign up to free Spotify account, download one of the many ‘hacked’ Spotify installation files out there, put in their username and password, and enjoy.

 

How many people use these hacked versions of Spotify isn’t clear and up to now, it’s been somewhat of a mystery as to why Spotify itself hasn’t done something about them. During the past few days, however, there have been signs that a crackdown could be on the way.

 

In an email sent to an unknown but significant number of people, Spotify informs users of modified apps that they’re on the company’s radar and there could be consequences for trying to subvert the system.

“We detected abnormal activity on the app you are using so we have disabled it. Don’t worry – your Spotify account is safe,” the email from Spotify reads.

 

“To access your Spotify account, simply uninstall any unauthorized or modified version of Spotify and download and install the Spotify app from the official Google Play Store. If you need more help, please see our support article on Reinstalling Spotify.”

 

Users have been popping up on Spotify’s forums asking why they’ve received this email. Some seem to think they’ve done nothing wrong but most signs point to people using modified software.

 

 

The warning email from Spotify.

 


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While the email signs off with a note thanking the recipient for being a Spotify user, there is also a warning.

 

 

“If we detect repeated use of unauthorized apps in violation of our terms, we reserve all rights, including suspending or terminating your account,” Spotify writes.

 

For people who used their real accounts along with modified apps this could be a problem but many people using hacked versions go in prepared with a secondary or temporary email address and false details.

Quite how far Spotify will go to rid its service of this kind of a user remains unknown but at least for now, the actual effects of this early crackdown seemed mixed.

 

TorrentFreak has spoken with users who have modified versions and have received the email, yet their installation still works just fine. Others report that they can no longer log in with their modified version.

 

What is clear, however, is that Spotify has both modified apps and their creators on its radar. On March 1, 2018 the company wrote to Github demanding that a popular Spotify mod known as ‘Dogfood’ be taken down from the repository.

 

 

Dogfood is done on Github

 

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The full takedown notice can be found here. It lists Dogfood itself plus a whole bunch of ‘forks’ which have also been taken down by Github.

 

There were signs in January that the developer of Dogfood might have been under pressure to limit the effectiveness of his app. On January 18 he announced on XDA that some functionality would be removed moving forward.

 

“In order to comply with XDA’s Rules and CoC, Spotify Dogfood has taken a new direction, and now offers *exclusively* Ad-free music playback,” he wrote.

 

“Any other features won’t be included anymore in this mod. But, that doesn’t mean anything if you’re a true, a core user of this app, because there will still be regular updates to it, as there has been up until now.”

 

Where that development will take place now isn’t clear but it clearly won’t be on Github. Indeed, even XDA has been targeted by Spotify, with the site receiving a DMCA notice from the company which required the removal of links and an apparent closure of the whole discussion.

 

XDA DMCA takedown

 

https://s7d3.turboimg.net/sp/f5246e2ed5c11699697bd5a581d3f408/spotify-xda.png

 

 

For now it seems that Spotify is playing nice, at least with users of modified apps. Whether it will continue with the same relaxed attitude is unclear but it’s hard not to connect the move with its intention to go public and its $23bn valuation.

 

Still, the company should be more in tune with pirates than most given its history, so may yet have a decent plan up its sleeve.

 

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It's sad, but not all that unexpected. I mean, to post the damn mods on XDA and place the code on Git on top of that? That's not being community-driven, that's just asking for it, playing for maximum exposure. Sure, you might say that Spotify has had the apps "on their radar" for who knows how long, but with the brazenness of it all, they'd have to be blind not to take notice. No other app has ever been so loosely monitored as to allow actual hacks on XDA for as long as those couple of threads existed offering much more than ad-free mods. 

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44 minutes ago, Alanon said:

It's sad, but not all that unexpected. I mean, to post the damn mods on XDA and place the code on Git on top of that? That's not being community-driven, that's just asking for it, playing for maximum exposure. Sure, you might say that Spotify has had the apps "on their radar" for who knows how long, but with the brazenness of it all, they'd have to be blind not to take notice. No other app has ever been so loosely monitored as to allow actual hacks on XDA for as long as those couple of threads existed offering much more than ad-free mods. 

Still works just fine using  the web player in you're  browser on Linux and Windows with  the Google drm plug-in  and and a adblocker . Most apps i ever seen on Windows and Linux  you had to add lines  to  you're host and still that didn't really work 100% . Kodi has a  plugin for it but the catch is you must be a premium user for it to work and there plenty of free music alternatives were you don't have to pay on Kodi . Same with the Clementine plugin  you must be  a premium user but Clementine also have free ice cast and you can add you're favorite radio stations too it. .  I don't really care  there  is many ways i can stream music without paying  or i can just pirate  the stuff and save it  like it was 1999 again .  I join spotify in 2014 with a disposable email and my account still works just fine for listening in my browser for free  with a adblocker and no ads. :dance:

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have found a software which can download all playlist songs from spotify with best quality, 320kbps. After downloading, I will not need spotify. Sorry.

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32 minutes ago, mclaren85 said:

I have found a software which can download all playlist songs from spotify with best quality, 320kbps. After downloading, I will not need spotify. Sorry.

 

And what software is that?

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1 hour ago, anakin206 said:

 

And what software is that?

Tune fab converter

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6 minutes ago, mclaren85 said:

Serial

 

Thanks and please, delete that. It is against the forum rules to post serial numbers and cracks. You can post it with a link to a paste.bin, for example.

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It was already been shared. Sorry I have just seen it:

 

 

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I find it weird that a friend of mine got this e-mail while using the cracked version on android, since you literally couldn't buy premium even if you wanted, but I didn't get it while using the cracked one on ios.

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