‘Kingdom Leaks’ Announced the Date of the End of Its Operation

• ‘Kingdom Leaks’ will go on until January 1, 2021, and then it’ll close down forever.
• The reasons given are that the operators are tired of keeping a firm stance against copyright holders.
• One of the admins has suggested that everyone should use something like Spotify now.

The music piracy site ‘Kingdom Leaks’ decided to wrap up and announced its closure date, which is set for January 1, 2021. So, if you are a fan of the platform, you’ve got exactly a month left to enjoy it. The site found itself in the RIAA and the MPA crosshairs recently, and this was not the first time that copyright holders went after its domains.

You see, ‘Kingdom Leaks’ is not specifically about sharing licensed music for free, hurting publishers, creators, and distributors. Its “motto” is not piracy, but it claims to help people listen to an album before deciding to buy it.

User “mR12,” who is one of the site’s admins, has posted a lengthy message on the official website’s forum after he originally posted it on Discord, explaining that the project is now essentially done for and that people should consider using Spotify now.

As the admin writes, people take for granted that ‘Kingdom Leaks’ can keep on ignoring the U.S. federal law for over four years now, but things aren’t as simple as that. At some point, “they nail you.” Considering that the servers weren’t set up with all the proper precautions like using VPN and securing device anonymity, former and current members would be exposed if the authorities were to seize them.

In the same message, “mR12” calls people to consider services like Spotify, which is worth the $120 per year subscription cost. The lifelong pirate mentions the elements of hassle-free listening, cross-platform support, humongous music collection that covers almost everything, and the option for offline listening, which the person characterizes as “partial piracy.”

To see one of the pirate site operators realize the importance of supporting creators and their labels seems weird, but it’s praiseworthy. People grow up, realize new stuff, and sometimes change their opinions even regarding things that seem to be fundamental, almost fixed.

In the end, giving people the ability to listen to something before they buy it isn’t needed as much these days. People can now listen to samples of new albums on YouTube, the artist’s website, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Last.fm, and many more legal platforms.