[Playlists] Solution to false/abusive reporting

[CloudlightRec]

Whenever someone reports a playlist - the title and cover art are removed immediately. This is often abused to hurt record labels and playlist curators. After contacting support - the account of someone who abused this system gets taken down. This person then creates another email and free Spotify account and repeats the process. 

There is a simple solution to the problem - enable reporting feature only after 10 hours of music/podcasts were streamed using the account. It won't change the experience for a normal user but makes copyright abuse impractical. It's cheap and easy to implement and would stop 95% of false claims.

Thank you for your consideration. 

[aarongrubb]

@autumntillman no way! That's cool. Thanks for having me on your playlist. I emailed you a minute ago right before I saw your reply here

[kirkland_island]

@aarongrubb Thanks for pointing out the true issue here. Artists like yourself depend on smaller playlist curators like most of us to start to be seen and gain momentum. When our playlists are taken down and cannot be searched on Spotify, this directly impacts the amount of streams you get.

Think of it on the side of whoever is reporting our playlists. If they take down every other playlist, they know that artists like Aaron are losing streams. If they own the top playlist in certain categories, they can then begin to contact these smaller artists and charge them $ to be included in their playlists, essentially having a monopoly of the space. The smaller artists have the choice to either pay the people who are reporting or just not be included in any playlist.

[aarongrubb]

Thank you, @kirkland_island - let's be sure to report those people right back - and we have cause: charging for that is also against the guidelines. I really want to have a central community of people like us that can band together and take action together as well as inform the community when something happens. Any ideas? 

[kevinkuzia]

While I'm sad to see this entire thread, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one having this issue affecting my most popular Spotify playlist. I was beginning to think I must be getting something wrong since I've had this same edited content issue happen now 8 times with my playlist in just over a year. It's especially frustrating because now having over 3,000 followers to the playlist and the amount of time it's taken, I begin to wonder if all of this is even worth it. I just find it confusing to have a process that causes removal of the image/title/description without any proof and then it's up to the playlist curator to prove they did nothing wrong.

[TheLedge1]

1.  If you don't have enough support staff to handle the false reporting then perhaps its a bad feature.

2.  If you don't support online harassments on your platform then perhaps it's a bad feature.

3.  If you are inundated with complaints, refuse to reply to support emails because you have no answer and have a bad customer experience then perhaps it's a bad feature.

4.  If you feel that ignoring the issue for over a year is a good answer, then perhaps your customer service directors and VP of development are bad.

[NT88]

Unfortunately it looks like Spotify is trying to squeeze out independent playlist creators. I wouldn't be surprised if large record companies are involved in operating some of these fake bot accounts... false reporting has been insane the last few months with no consequences. I'm also hearing of instances of popular independent profile accounts being cancelled/disabled lately for suspicion of running paid playlists services, some maybe are but the one's I've seen were just self-promoting their own music. It's a shame that Spotify has gone in this direction.... I'll be spending most of my time on Apple & YouTube music as they also allow user generated public playlists and they don't get messed around with easily. If Apple and YouTube or Tidal etc were clever they could capitalise on this situation and adopt many of the Spotify social features that helped them grow in the first place.

Anyone's who's still hanging in there good luck but it looks like things are getting worse and Spotify will likely look very different in a year or so, concentrating on maximising their profits and squeezing the little guys out. If you're a passionate music lover or are self-promoting your own music then maybe starting a Podcast might be an option... Spotify seems to be prioritising them at the moment... good luck everyone.

[ludvich]

One of my playlists keeps getting reported by a bot every 15 minutes. I've set up my own bot (thanks to someone in this thread) to update it back every minute. I've contacted Spotify but never get any response. I'm starting to get really furious. It's insane that they don't recognize this and do something about it.

And to the person behind this suggestion:

"There is a simple solution to the problem - enable reporting feature only after 10 hours of music/podcasts were streamed using the account."

10 hours will not nearly be enough. How hard can it be to create an account and play music for 10 hours to just do this again? It shoudn't have anything to do with how many hours you've played music. It should just be like any other service: If a playlist gets reported, someone at spotify needs evaluate the reported playlist. If it's not breaking any rules and the account that has been falsely reporting it has been doing it for more than like 10 times: PERM BAN.

[NT88]

They used to verify user profiles with a blue checkmark which means they can't be reported. They don't do that for user accounts anymore unless they are affiliated with a major label or well known artist... I don't quite feel the same about Spotify anymore... one of the best features is sharing playlists with others and that's pretty much taken away now... 

[aarongrubb]

I just sent in another email to Spotify. Will everyone else do the same? Maybe we'll have a voice if we keep at it and everyone joins in. Keep sending support messages until you get an intelligent reply.

[NT88]

I think the emails go in the trash-can but yeah still worth replying... I think another idea is go to their live chat support and complain. You'll get a chat-bot at first but keep saying your question isn't answered and they will put you through to a real person. If everyone did that a few times a week they will be more aware of the issue around the office. Maybe request to make a formal complaint and get a reference number too. And tell them that you will be cancelling premium if the issue isn't resolved soon.