Domain: stafaband.info
Registration: Fatra Dhinata, Exez Entertainment, Bandung, Jawa Barat, Indonesia
Operator: Fatra Dhinata, Exez Entertainment (Indonesia)
Hosting Provider: LeaseWeb USA (US)
Revenue Sources: Advertising, malware install programs
Stafaband is an unlicensed service providing free on-demand streaming and downloads of a vast catalogue of popular music. On its home page it welcomes users and boasts “On this website you can download free music, play and listen audio songs for free and no Registration!” The site’s home page offers all of the latest albums under a section entitled “new albums 2015” using the official album art, and provides preset playlists under such categories as “Best Rock” organized by decade going back to the 50’s, and “Best Country.” The site purports to respect copyright laws, and offers an email address for reporting infringing links. However, active links are always available to the vast array of offerings, despite the fact that the RIAA alone has notified the site of nearly 200,000 infringing URLs and the Google Transparency Report shows that copyright owners have sought the removal of just over 3.7 million infringing URLs. After touting itself as a source for free music in its banner headline, the site disingenuously advises users behind an inconspicuous “disclaimer” tab that users should delete files from their computer after listening, warning that if they don’t delete them “you’ll break copyright protection laws.” Despite this, it knowingly offers not only currently released, popular music but also albums that have not yet been commercially released (i.e. pre-release music).
Stafaband has a global Alexa ranking of 10,311. According to SimilarWeb traffic data, the site is averaging 7.4 million visits a month with the majority of traffic coming from Indonesia and the United States. Stafaband has been blocked in the U.K. by court order.