Spotify's playlists and podcast pages are being exploited by spammers who use them to promote pirate websites offering illegal downloads of games, ebooks, and other content.

The issue stems from Spotify's web platform (open.spotify.com) being highly indexable by search engines. Spammers create playlists and podcasts with specific keywords related to pirated content, which then appear in Google search results. For example, playlists titled "Sony Vegas Pro 13 Crack" were discovered before being removed by Spotify.

Security expert Karol Paciorek explains that criminals target Spotify because of its strong reputation and search engine visibility, making it an effective platform for distributing malicious links.

While Spotify removes flagged content, new spam continues to appear. Searches for terms like "free download" and "epub download" reveal numerous playlists and six-second podcasts promoting pirated content, including popular books and media.

Many spam podcasts are distributed through Firstory Hosting, a third-party platform launched in 2019. Firstory acknowledges this as an "ongoing challenge" and claims to have implemented filters for suspicious domains, email addresses, and keywords like "epub," "PDF," and "download."

Despite these measures, the platform remains flooded with spam content. A simple search for "epub" on Spotify's podcast page returns hundreds of spam results, indicating that both Spotify's music and podcast interfaces are vulnerable to manipulation by spammers.

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