I really don't think spotify gas much to worry about. Pirating music has been a thing since long before Spotify hit the stage. Spotify's strength (and what I pay for) is convenience. Even if I had a personal library with all the music annas-archive pulled down, I still think I'd keep paying for Spotify as long as it remains easily accessible on all my devices.
I agree. In the early 2000s I spent an absurd amount of time hunting down mp3s, tagging them, organizing them, and burning backups. Looking back, it was a ridiculous amount of effort compared to streaming. Once Spotify came around I was hooked. It’s still worth it to me even with the occasional price hike.
Having worked in streaming media and entertainment for the last several years, I am solidly convinced that most of the streaming media services are built by people who essentially turned the tools they built to manage their pirated libraries into a saleable product :P
I thought that hidden services is mainly to protect the service itself, while the TOR Browser protects the users of the service. Of course protecting the service protects the users, but is there a different benefit you are referring to?
