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The original was posted on /r/piracy by /u/Kyuiki on 2025-04-23 15:44:54+00:00.
I just kind of wanted to rant about my experience and why I started pirating music files and hear from others experiences as well!
As for my background, I'm very well off when it comes to money, and I can purchase whatever music I'd like. Until recently I didn't even think about piracy and hadn't since I was in my late teens. I relied solely on cloud streaming services (Spotify) for my music and I didn't mind at all paying the monthly fee for it. I also have a family plan that I use with my sister.
I listen to very niche (EDM) music and loved Spotify for the longest time. I have most of my music in hour long playlists so that I can have timed listening, and each playlist has a specific theme. I switch between 37 different playlists I've created in the last 10 years.
However, recently I've seen a LOT of copyright claims being made which result in songs I've had favorited for years being removed from Spotify. When I got to legally purchase these songs (I can afford it), they're removed from every online store that had them available as well. They are literally unpurchasable at this point.
So the next thing I started doing was trying to purchase these songs pre-emptively, to own them before a similar fate happened to them. This is not straightforward task when trying to purchase Spotify music, because you can't purchase directly from Spotify. So when I look for a song I have to look between 3 major storefronts (Apple, Amazon, or Beatport). It literally takes me 30 - 45 minutes to purchase all songs in a single playlist while making sure I'm getting the proper "mixes" of each song.
The breaking point is I have been working on purchasing this music legally each day, with what limited time I have. I have made it to 15 playlists of music purchased legally... and just a few days ago I found out two of my favorite songs on playlist 35 were taken down. It's just heartbreaking that those songs are also going to be gone with a relatively small chance of retrieving them.
So in response I have taken the steps necessary to ensure while I'm gradually working through legally purchasing music, that I have a backups of all of my songs that can become unavailable without notice at any point in time.
TL;DR: I started pirating because copyright claims are making nostalgic music that I love, unpurchasable. If I don't do it, the song may become permanently unavailable and eventually unable to be obtained. Digital music is terrifying when you really think, "I don't own any of this." and that songs can be erased from existence because of the lack of a physical presence.
Edit: I think something important that I left out is that when these copyright claims are coming through, they're not just removed from Spotify. They get removed from all three storefronts too -- they become unpurchasable.
