For more than half a decade Spotify has relied on P2P technology to quickly deliver songs to its millions of subscribers. This will be over soon. The music streaming service has started to phase out P2P technology to rely fully on central servers instead.

When Spotify launched its first beta in the fall of 2008, we branded it “an alternative to music piracy.”

With the option to stream millions of tracks supported by an occasional ad, or free of ads for a small subscription fee, Spotify appeared to be a serious competitor to music piracy.

In the years that followed Spotify conquered the hearts and minds of many music fans. Currently available in 61 countries, the service has amassed dozens of millions of users. A true success story, one that was in part made possible due to Spotify’s heavy reliance on P2P technology.

In fact, Spotify has long been one of the largest P2P networks on the Internet. When Spotify subscribers play a track in the desktop client, this could come from three sources: a cached file on the computer, one of Spotify’s servers, or from other subscribers through P2P.

In 2011 we reported that of all tracks that were not accessed over the Internet, roughly 80% went through the P2P network. This allowed Spotify to reduced server resources and associated costs, which is a pretty big deal for a startup.

However, the end of the road is coming soon for this massive private sharing network. TorrentFreak has learned that Spotify plans to discontinue its P2P technology altogether, to rely solely on central servers instead.

“We’re gradually phasing out the use of our desktop P2P technology which has helped our users enjoy their music both speedily and seamlessly,” Spotify’s Alison Bonny informs TF.

Where Spotify previously needed P2P to guarantee that all tracks could be played with the lowest lag possible, this is no longer needed. During the months to come Spotify will effectively shut down its P2P servers.

“We’re now at a stage where we can power music delivery through our growing number of servers and ensure our users continue to receive a best-in-class service,” Bonny says.

P2P has been central to Spotify’s success for a variety of reasons. For one, it allowed the service to scale up quickly without having to invest heavily in servers and bandwidth. This must have saved the company millions of dollars per year.

Also, one of the lead engineers since the start is none other than Ludvig Strigeus, the original creator of the BitTorrent client uTorrent. Strigeus sold uTorrent to BitTorrent Inc. in 2006, and some believe that part of this money went into the development of Spotify.

Spotify’s departure from P2P technology marks the end of an era, but to most people the change will simply go unnoticed, just like the fact that they have been sharing tracks with thousands of people from all over the world for years, with permission from the major record labels.

Spotify’s (former) distribution setup

source:
http://torrentfreak.com

For over 5 years now, the well-known music streaming service has relied on peer-to-peer technology to deliver music to its millions of subscribers, but this practice will cease soon. Spotify has started to phase out peer-to-peer technology in favor of central servers.

Allowing to stream millions of tracks supported by an occasional advert (or free of adverts for an insignificant subscription fee), Spotify seems to be a serious competitor to music piracy when it emerged back in 2008. In the following years Spotify became popular in 61 countries, accounting for dozens of millions of users. This success was in part made possible due to Spotify’s heavy reliance on peer-to-peer technology.

In fact, the streaming service has long been one of the largest peer-to-peer networks on the Internet. When its users play a track, this could come from either a cached file on the PC, one of Spotify’s servers, or from other users via P2P. According to 2011 statistics, of all tracks that weren’t accessed over the web, about 80% went through the peer-to-peer network, which allowed Spotify to reduce server resources and associated costs – a big deal for a startup.

Unfortunately, this practice can soon cease, as Spotify announced it was going to discontinue its peer-to-peer technology altogether and switch to central servers instead. The company representatives explained they are gradually phasing out the use of desktop peer-to-peer technology that has helped the subscribers enjoy their music both speedily and seamlessly.

The matter is that Spotify no longer needs P2P to guarantee that all tracks could be played with the lowest lag possible, and therefore in the following months the company will effectively shut down its P2P servers. Spotify explained that it can power music delivery via its growing number of servers and ensure that the subscribers continue to receive a service of high quality.

It should be admitted that P2P has been central to Spotify’s success for several reasons – for example, it allowed the service to scale up quickly without having to invest heavily in servers and bandwidth, which must have saved it millions of dollars. By the way, one of the lead engineers of the company is none other than Ludvig Strigeus, the original creator of uTorrent. He sold the app to BitTorrent Inc. 8 years ago, and part of this money may have gone into the development of Spotify.

Industry experts believe that Spotify’s departure from peer-to-peer networks can mark the end of an era, but ordinary users won’t notice the changes, just like the fact that they have been sharing music with everyone from all over the world for many years.