If you love music, you’ve probably already tuned in to Spotify, which allows you to listen to new streaming music for free (for a few months at least) and even put together your own playlists. They also offer radio stations in a similar fashion to Pandora, and you can listen to your iTunes playlists through Spotify as well. It’s a music lover’s dream come true.

And I will say that the fact that they’ve aligned themselves with Facebook, allowing people to share virtual music with their friends, was an extremely smart marketing move.

But while Spotify is good at promoting itself on Facebook, it is not so good at self-promotion through its own radio spots. The one I seem to hear most starts off with the line “Piracy is so old-fashioned…”

And I laugh every time I hear it. Do they expect that a line like that is going to work on someone who likes to steal music? (I’m not one of them, but I have many friends who are.)

The answer is yes. That’s exactly what they expect. And apparently their anti-piracy campaign has worked quite well in Sweden, which has experienced a significant drop in piracy since the launch of Spotify.

Now whether that drop was fueled by their own radio spots or just by virtue of the fact that Spotify exists — giving pirates the booty they desire for free or a small fee — is open to debate. And since Spotify has been in America for less than a year, only time will tell if we follow the Swedish path to righteousness. My guess is that American pirates will not so easily give up owning the music they want for free.

What do ye think, scallywags?