Taylor Swift knew Spotify was trouble, so she pulled her albums from the streaming service ahead of the release of her smash 2014 collection, 1989. Oddly, the singer's material has made its way back via a fraudulent upload. Even weirder, her old "I Knew You Were Trouble" single was credited to disgraced and disbanded English outfit Lostprophets.
The Guardian reports that the bizarre digital bootleg popped up on Spotify on Friday (December 4) as "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Lostprophets. The song was not a long-lost cover, though, and was in fact Swift's original studio recording, from 2012's Red. As of this morning, the pinched hit had been streamed 39,681,189 times, but it's now been removed.
As of press time, it's unclear who staged the sneaky single upload, or why it was attached to Lostprophets, whose singer Ian Watkins is currently serving a 35-year year jail term for child sex crimes. The Spotify listing shows Watkins as the primary songwriter. Even stranger, the artwork is a screengrab from an episode of Canadian cartoon Scaredy Squirrel, with the Lostprophets logo slapped above it.
That said, Spotify was, ahem, swift with taking down the track once it was alerted.
"The track in question was delivered to us by a provider, whose responsibility it is to ensure that content delivered to Spotify is fully licensed and in compliance with our Infringement Policy," a representative told the Guardian. "We take the integrity of our catalogue very seriously, and will immediately remove any content that is found to be incorrectly licensed or attributed to the incorrect artist or composer.
"The track was taken down as soon as it was discovered (3 days after it was delivered), and we will be taking the matter further with the provider who delivered this track."
Interestingly, it wasn't just Spotify that was served the mislabelled track. Amazon is still selling the song, which you can preview here. The track also apparently appeared on iTunes.
Swift has not yet commented on the sneak leak.
The Guardian reports that the bizarre digital bootleg popped up on Spotify on Friday (December 4) as "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Lostprophets. The song was not a long-lost cover, though, and was in fact Swift's original studio recording, from 2012's Red. As of this morning, the pinched hit had been streamed 39,681,189 times, but it's now been removed.
As of press time, it's unclear who staged the sneaky single upload, or why it was attached to Lostprophets, whose singer Ian Watkins is currently serving a 35-year year jail term for child sex crimes. The Spotify listing shows Watkins as the primary songwriter. Even stranger, the artwork is a screengrab from an episode of Canadian cartoon Scaredy Squirrel, with the Lostprophets logo slapped above it.
That said, Spotify was, ahem, swift with taking down the track once it was alerted.
"The track in question was delivered to us by a provider, whose responsibility it is to ensure that content delivered to Spotify is fully licensed and in compliance with our Infringement Policy," a representative told the Guardian. "We take the integrity of our catalogue very seriously, and will immediately remove any content that is found to be incorrectly licensed or attributed to the incorrect artist or composer.
"The track was taken down as soon as it was discovered (3 days after it was delivered), and we will be taking the matter further with the provider who delivered this track."
Interestingly, it wasn't just Spotify that was served the mislabelled track. Amazon is still selling the song, which you can preview here. The track also apparently appeared on iTunes.
Swift has not yet commented on the sneak leak.
