Stop Playlist Scams

[ASouthworth]

There is a widespread Spotify playlist scam that has been running for at least a year, and i've seen it result in artists getting their music pulled from the platform when they've done nothing wrong. 

Basically the scam is a playlist company will add songs by 2,000 artists per day to their playlist, pumps bots to all the songs on it (maybe even some followers) hoping the artist will see the spike in streams and check it out in Spotify for Artists. The playlist has contact information or a website link on it, and they're hoping someone falls for it and hires them for more fake promo.

The playlist company is adding songs without the artists permission, and sometimes artists get banned even though they never initiated this.

Here are some ideas for how Spotify can fix this problem:

1. Make it impossible to put URL's or email addresses in the playlist descriptions
2. Provide some option for artists to report the playlists and have their songs removed from the playlist
3. Create better detection algorithms that punish the playlist creator and not the artists on the playlists
4. Switch to a user centric payment model that makes bots non-viable
5. Impose limits on the Spotify API that make it costly for bad actors to scale these types of bot attacks

[pianotpot]

Everyone on this thread - there is a new idea 'a way for artists to remove their songs from a specific playlist' that they suspect of being botted. https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/quot-Remove-From-Playlist-Button-quot-for-Artists/idi-p/... Please go and show it some love

[carlospr]

This just happened to me acouple of days ago and ONE RPM just said. Album taken down and that's it. It seems someone that collaborated with a guitar on a song released four years, not a single, sent bots to get this song removed from his profile. He and I don't speak. I told distributor to remove him fro the collab. My album was taken down two days ago. ONR RPM just said that they don't allow artificial streaming. They didn't care about what I told them. I've been releasing music for 11 years, 12 albums, almos 100 songs, and they just didn't care. Spotify Customer Service is terrible and rude. They say, talk to distributor and just finish the chat. This sucks so much. 

[erikstearns]

Wow. I totally feel where you are coming from. That totally stinks. I've
been in bad breakups when it comes to music partnerships and how they ended
badly for me. I also empathize with the take down. Ever since my post, I
received a ton of emails of people telling me their stories. Rest assured,
you're not alone, for what it's worth.

One thing that I highly recommend it the Top Music Attorney on podcast
platforms or YouTube. I especially recommend the last two or three episodes,
because she exposes the digital distrubuters' terms of service and such.
It's shocking. Personally, I hope that with her, we can start a class
action lawsuit and bring these power mongers to at least a civil justice.
What they do, just like any big industry has no regard for the smaller
artist.

I wish you the best and I hope what I shared helps.

Sincerely,

Erik

[carlospr]

Thanks for the words Erick. I will check that YouTube channel today. The response fro the Custoemr Service of ONE RPM was terrible. They just don't care. They told me to go to another distributor. It's like someone blaming you for something you didn't do and also taking direct consequences. 

They ignored when I asked them about sending bots to any small random artist and that way that artist music would be taken down, just like that? This is insane!

[erikstearns]

Yes, the customer service response is common. I experienced the same thing both with Tunecore and Spotify. So that's not a surprise.
I hpe this information helps though. I hope we can put big music in its place.
Take care,
Erik.

[JoseCorteReal]

*Don't release albums to Spotify!*
*Just singles!*

*If they decide to take down a song, but it is part of an album, they take
down all the album. *

[erikstearns]

Yes, I totally agree and there are so many who agree with that.

Erik.

[xy_ge9-pzypt]

Artist support just tells you that the tracks have been taken down (duh obviously that was why I was reaching out) and then abruptly ends the chat. Not helpful at all.

Spotify support just tells

[erikstearns]

Yeah. That happened to me and so many others. If you look up Top Music
Attorney on YouTube, and you'll see evidence of that through the comments
alone.

Thanks,

Erik.

[lisawarrenmusic]

This just happened to me  My whole album gone the tracks were on and 2 were flagged.:( just now dealing with this.