Spotify combats streaming farms to protect artists, fans

Spotify is poised to tackle streaming farms in an effort to remove them from the music business. In today’s music industry, streaming platforms are vital for artists to share their music and earn revenue. However, the issue of streaming farms has emerged as a significant concern for both artists and fans.

To address this, Spotify intends to use smart tech, team up with others in the industry, and make efforts to teach artists how to spot and avoid these scams.

Streaming farms are setups that use bots or automated tools to create fake streams, making it look like a song is more popular than it really is. This tricks fans, messes up charts, and takes royalties away from artists who deserve them.

Spotify intends to use advanced technology to spot fake streams. These systems look at how often a song plays, what devices are used, and how accounts act to catch anything fishy. Second, real people step in to double-check the tech’s findings, making sure no mistakes are made. Third, Spotify teams up with other companies through the ‘Music Fights Fraud Alliance’. This group includes streaming services, distributors, and record labels pooling their know-how to stop fraud in its tracks.

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Andreea Gleeson, chief executive officer of Tunecore, said, “It is very, very important that we protect the ecosystem because we want as much of the royalty pool to go to artists with legitimate listeners and make sure that they’re the ones that are benefiting from all their hard work.”

She added, “We formulated an alliance called Music Fights Fraud Alliance… to put our resources and brains against ‘how do we fight fraud?’ We want to eradicate fraud.”

Spreading the word to artists

Many artists, especially new ones, get tricked by offers that sound amazing but are fake. David Martin, CEO of the Featured Artists Coalition, warns, “If anybody is guaranteeing that they can get you on playlists or boost your fans, I would say avoid that. If it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably too good to be true.”

He noted that artists often get messages on social media promising guaranteed streams or playlist spots from companies that don’t even exist.

Spotify intends to start telling artists when fake streams are found on their songs and share tips on dodging scams. Bryan Johnson, Head of Artist & Industry Partnerships at Spotify, said, “We know how frustrating it can be if you’re caught up in any of this. That’s why we’re investing heavily in tech and resources to detect artificial streams, and enforcing policies as quickly as possible to deter bad actors.”

Spotify’s strict rules

Johnson further stated that artificial streams won’t earn royalties. “They are fully removed from royalty calculations and do not dilute the royalty pool in any way,” Johnson said.

The head of industry partnership at Spotify noted that fake streams won’t count toward public numbers like stream counts or chart rankings. “Plus, Spotify charges labels and distributors for tracks with big artificial streaming problems, and those costs might hit the artists involved, discouraging anyone from trying it,” Johnson added.