Fake streams

[Richard7421]

Hey, I have a reason to believe that this artist (spotify:artist:5uHdXtqI5H3T17ovMtkqWs) has inflated their streaming numbers by using illicit services of a third party. I did a short investigation with tools that are widely available to anyone - Spotify application and Spotify for Artists. Here's what I have found:

#1 Streamsstreams count

According to this chart (generated by Spotify for Artists) when comparing their stats to my artist's, you can clearly see a peak that altogether provided band with around 10K listeners over 3-4 days. If these were legit listeners, the decline wouldn't be so steep most likely, because that's not how anyone listens to music.

Where people listen#2 Where people listen

Another reason I believe these are not legit streams, is the location of listeners. As you can see in their About section, you can see a massive difference in the number of listeners at a first place and second. Whilst I am saying not it's not possible for a foreing (czech) band to have a such fanbase in Pheonix, this looks rather shady, even more when we take into account that ...

Playlists#3 Playlists

As Spotify displays 5 biggest playlists the artist is a part of, they are currently not a part of any major playlist that potentially *could* provide them with such increase in numbers. 

#4 Saved

One of the things I would be rather curious to see, would be how many people have actually saved the track - their newest track that would be. If the number is pretty low in contrast to stream count (which is 37K as of now), I think that would be a definite display whether the artist has used illicit services. 

In conclussion: by the aforementioned evidence, I think this artist has paid for a third party service to have his numbers ilegitimely inflated. Based on my findings it seems there is something shady definitely at play.

Since Spotify by itself doesn't have any way of reporting such activity, I decided to publish my findings here. 

[Bethany_Dawn]

Hey @Richard7421 and thanks for coming to the Community! 🙂
If you'd like to contact Spotify directly with this data, there is a contact page here with a couple options. If you choose the "Contact Us" option it will give you a chance to do a direct Chat if there's no quick solution that fits. 
I hope this was helpful and have a great day! 🙂

[actually_osman]

Is there a tool for soundcloud similar to the graph you showed? Thanks.

[shewasgreat1]

Hi, 

What if there's a twist in this post that actually the one who started the post @Richard7421  is actually the one who loops the music of the artist and paid third party fake streams so that whatever music@Richard7421  doesn't like will be taken down? It is possible, isn't it?

How can the Spotify prove whose behind the streams?

Is it possible if I don't like this X artist E.g. Justin Bieber or any other indie artist for personal reason, I can just loop their music endlessly and the next month their music will be taken down?

Shouldn't be that the one who's got taken down is the user instead of the artists?

[K2B]

Hi, 

First of all for newer artists, the graph you showed is always the case. They upload a new song a lot of people listen to it but don't like it and don't listen to it later on. I've seen people promoting their song a lot spending a lot of money on it and then they get some streams but not consistent streams. Also Spotify for artists is not available to everyone to get the graph you've shown you have to either be the owner of the artist account or the artist account gave you access. In both cases it looks shady for you

2. There is a huge chance of people from different places listening to music in different languages. My friends makes music in English and his largest fanbases are in India and Germany. Both countries have their own languages but people still listen to the English song. It depends on the song. For example many non Korean people listen to k pop even though they don't understand anything, they just like the music.

Again you cannot see how many people saved the song unless you are the artist or artist gave you access. This means you are the artist or know the artist. 

So please be careful before accusing people of fake streams because that could literally destroy their career because of your dumb mistake. Personally I don't believe this artist used fake streams 

[YogaMomCamille]

Yes Podtrac.com is a 3rd party RSS activity tracker.  Go to their website, set up an account.  In your Soundcloud settings, go to content and in the second row down at the end there's a box that says "Stats-service URL prefix".  Click on the circled ? and it will actually have the URL for you to enter if you created a Podtrac account.  You also need the RSS info from this Soundcloud page to set up your Podtrac.

[Mihail]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out and voicing your concerns.

We appreciate you having an interest in keeping stream count data accurate and free of manipulations. We take such reports very seriously and have forwarded them to the right teams.

If you'd like to make us aware of suspicious cases, we suggest that you use the report content feature. This way it will be handled the quickest way possible. You can learn how to do this in this Support Page.

Hope this is helpful but don't hesitate to let us know if you have any further questions!

[MilesMorales90]

My question is why does it matter to any of you if an artist is having fake streams or not? The music industry is already extremely difficult to get into people only care about numbers today can you really blame people for faking numbers to get actual real numbers? When people get on social media and they see a artist regardless of how good the music is they're only going to follow their artist majority of the time when they have a lot of followers and a lot of numbers. It's why there's so much bad music out there but it's in mainstream. I say leave people alone if it's not hurting you I literally don't see the issue with people having fake streams especially if they're trying to promote themselves. 

[hopeverity88]

I don't understand why they call it 'fake streams.' It is still a stream, even if it is on a loop. What if a super fan wants to stream their favorite music in their shop or restaurant all day? It would be looping, and based on Spotify's definition, they'd call it 'fake streams.' To me, 'fake streams' do not exist. If you want to stream, you need an account. Only humans can set up accounts on Spotify. So, a stream comes from a human, after all.
Sometimes, music runs in the background in my kitchen, and I do not always listen. Does a stream count when the listener hears the song, or does it also count when the music is super quiet, and you actually do not hear what kind of music is running? Sometimes, it is simply on a loop or in some playlist. Who cares? Stop destroying the work of artists!

This whole 'fake stream' is unnecessary. What if an artist loops their own music? If we look closer, it wouldn't be a 'fake stream' because what if they want to hear their music in the background all the time? It is not on us, Spotify, or any other platform to decide how people listen to their music. Everyone can listen to music in a loop if they want. The listeners can do whatever they want because they pay a monthly subscription. 

I find this behavior of throwing shades at artists, especially indie artists, shady and highly unfair. I find the first post here in this section by Richard7421 super questionable. There could be many reasons the band had a short peak with their music. If it's that easy to throw shades at artists and risk their careers, then I am super disappointed in Spotify, Apple Music, and others who act righteous. This doesn't seem right. Spotify should help Indie Artists instead of destroying their music by taking it down due to 'fake streams,' which, I am sure, they weren't even able to prove. 

I am no musician, but my friend is, and his music has been deleted. He didn't buy any so-called 'fake streams' (he could prove it by showing his bank statements), and he went to his lawyer and the press hoping to get some help because Spotify and Apple Music just ignored him. It was an extremely unfair treatment towards him, and I am disgusted by this hypocrisy. I am saying that because Spotify refuses to pay artists with too few streams. This needs to change urgently.

Spotify and other partners, it is your responsibility to stop this nonsense and find peaceful ways for artists and their platforms. Stop calling it 'fake streams'. I do not know anyone who has ever received 'fake streams.' That being said, if you believe in 'fake streams,' then why not start with the million-streamed songs by superstars? Is everything there to your 'liking?'