Artificial Streaming, also known as streaming fraud, is when an artist uses or their release is involved in artificial means to increase their stream counts.
This is serious business and bears repeating...
- DO NOT PAY FOR ANY SERVICE THAT OFFERS MORE STREAMS
- DO NOT PAY FOR ANY SERVICE THAT OFFERS MORE FOLLOWERS
- DO NOT PAY FOR ANY SERVICE THAT OFFERS PLAYLIST PLACEMENT
It's not always obvious that what you're signing up for is fraudulent, such as through "promo" companies who claim that they're creating ads. It's almost always a scam.
Our streaming partners are constantly working to identify and prevent streaming fraud on their platforms. Note that streaming services reserve the right to remove manipulated content from their platforms. Check out this statement directly from Spotify:
How does Spotify protect against artificial streaming?
- An artificial stream is a stream that doesn't reflect genuine user listening intent, including any instance of attempting to manipulate Spotify by using automated processes (bots or scripts).
We put significant engineering resources and research into detecting, mitigating, and removing artificial streaming activity on Spotify so that nothing stands in the way of our mission of giving artists the opportunity to live off their art, and so that rights holders are paid as fairly as possible for their work. The integrity of this is incredibly important to us because an illegitimate stream means there are honest, hard-working artists on the other side that are impacted.
If the majority of the streams on your release are found to be artificial, your music will likely be removed from streaming services, and royalties that were earned from the artificial streams will not be paid. You may also receive a warning from DistroKid and/or your DistroKid account will be closed.
Sometimes, streaming-fraud stems not from an artist being malicious--but from purchasing a shady marketing campaign. If you're planning on running promotional campaigns for your music, please do your research and only work with reputable companies. There are many so-called "promotional" or "marketing" companies that appear legit, but actually use bots and other shady methods to artificially increase streams. This almost always ends badly.
Check out this article for more information on the dangers of shady marketing campaigns.
It is also very important to be mindful of the playlists your release(s) are added to, even if you did not pay for placement on these playlists. There are unfortunately playlisters out there that grow their playlist through streaming fraud. This in turn earns your release artificial streams and can cause the removal of your release as well.
We have provided steps to check the playlists you have been added to in our FAQ article here.
This tool is also extremely helpful when wanting to check if a playlist you have been added to is botted - https://www.artist.tools/bot-checker
If you would like to report a suspicious playlist to Spotify, please visit https://artists.spotify.com/c/playlist-reporter.
More info from Spotify here:
Sign Up