So you just can’t wait to get your hands on the next release of one of your favorite artists? You pre-save it on Spotify and presto! As soon as it is out, it is in your playlist!
Actually, that seems not to be just it. As Billboard reports, to do the pre-save, any user has to approve permissions to the respective record label, and it seems it is not just your e-mail address and your musical preferences that the labels can get their hands on. As the magazine says, the labels can actually “track what they listen to, change what artists they follow, and potentially even control their music streaming remotely.”
The list of these permissions is usually prepared by the labels themselves, and they seem to ask for much more than they really need. Billboard uses the example of the users trying to pre-save “Bounce Back”, a single by Little Mix, which is released by Sony Music. The users were asked to agree that Spotify “could allow Sony to “view your Spotify account data,” “view your activity on Spotify”, and “take actions in Spotify on your behalf.”
Quoted media analyst John Tinker said that, “there’s nothing they’re doing that’s illegal —it’s just that no one ever actually realizes when they sign off on these things what they mean.”
A tweet quoted by The Verge on the same subject, pretty much says it all:
