The difference is that Grooveshark was always a pirate product, and didn't try to hide it. The UI had rough edges, but the library was massive, just like the old Napster era. Spotify was a growth hacker startup bro project, influenced by iTunes.
Then I'm not sure if this is a great example of the survivorship bias. One company tried to hide the piracy, the other didn't. One company operated from piracy-friendly countries, the other operated from a piracy-hostile country.
Survivorship bias is when two cases face the same selection process, not when one fails for taking an opposite approach.
Spotify had a big library of fully licensed music as early as 2008 in European markets. They were the next evolution of the record label-friendly post-Napster music startups.
They were already the teacher's pet. Grooveshark was the one that was always getting suspended, before ultimately being expelled.
A dog can be brought to heel and will comply because it prefers the warmth of the campfire to the cold of the wilderness. A wolf will do wolf things until it dies. Or in this case, is hunted into extinction.
