Why Spotify Started Out Just as Shady as Napster

Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift · Jun 19, 2026 · 9m

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…