Taylor Swift Song Appears On Spotify Credited To Lostprophets
A million years ago (November of 2014), Taylor Swift announced that she would be pulling her music from Spotify in anticipation 1989’s release. Spotify hoped that Swift would change her mind, but she didn’t, because Swift is a smart businesswoman who ended up selling 1.3 million copies of her LP in a week without their help. It’s weird, then, that Swift’s music briefly reappeared on Spotify three days ago. It’s even weirder that her song was credited to imprisoned sex offender Ian Watkins’ former band, Lostprophets. The Guardian reports that as of this morning, “I Knew You Were Trouble” had accrued 39,681,189 plays, which demonstrates that the new upload was linking back to the authorized track that used to be present on the site.
The cover art pictured above is a mash-up of Lostprophets’ logo and a screengrab from the Canadian cartoon Scaredy Squirrel (lol). After The Guardian asked Spotify about the apparent mix-up, the track was removed and a representative told the publication the following:
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. 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.
As a result, “I Knew You Were Trouble” showed up on Swift’s Spotify page, which is totally barren aside from songs she’s contributed to soundtracks. Lostprophets’ “version” of Swift’s song is on YouTube, and is also apparently being sold on iTunes. Watch the video for “I Knew You Were Trouble” below.