The folks at Spotify are scratching their heads after a Taylor Swift song reappeared on the streaming service, mistakenly attributed to Lostprophets a.k.a. the now-defunct band fronted by convicted paedophile Ian Watkins.
The streaming giant has now launched an investigation into the shamozzle, after Tay’s hit single I Knew You Were Trouble from her 2012 album Red resurfaced under the disgraced Welsh outfit’s name.
As NME reports, the song appeared on the Lostprophets artist page listed as a ‘new release’, featuring artwork of Canadian cartoon Scaredy Squirrel and the band’s logo.
It’s now been wiped off Spotify after being active for three days, but photographic evidence of the awkwardness remains:
Taylor Swift's I Knew You Were Trouble is appearing on the Lost Prophets artist page as a new release pic.twitter.com/UaBhEUTiB0
— Elena Cresci (@elenacresci) December 7, 2015
A Spotify spokesperson said the matter is being investigated, and seemed to insinuate that they got trojan-horsed by a person whose job it is to provide the company with fully licensed music.
“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,” the spokesperson told The Guardian. “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 (three days after it was delivered), and we will be taking the matter further with the provider who delivered this track.”
Taylor Swift famously removed all of her music from Spotify in November of 2014 in a bid to take a stand on the importance of artist royalty rates.
Lostprophets split up in 2013 after Watkins was sentenced to more than 29 years jail for a string of terrifying child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a one year old.
Frankly, I’m surprised that anyone was able to bring themselves to listen to Lostprophets on Spotify in order to discover the Taylor Swift glitch. The band had some killer tracks back in the day but the majority of us are now physically incapable of listening to their music without vomiting.
If you’re feeling sick just thinking about it, here’s the hilarious ‘Goat’ edition of Tay Tay’s I Knew You Were Trouble to cheer you up (or else you can check out the non-criminal members of Lost Prophets’ totally sweet new band, No Devotion, here).
Watch: Taylor Swift – Trouble (Goat Edition!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9m_RqYpOzM
