Spotify removed my track due to suspicious streaming. What can I do about it?

[KrustyRockStar]

I'm an Artist with Distrokid as my distributor.

Today, I received a heartbreaking email that told me the entire track got removed from Spotify due to "artificial streaming".

I do not, in any way deny that it could be the case (without my knowledge) but it was genuinely unintentional.

Many small independent Artists like myself are constantly looking for ways to promote our music to help grow our career. Since Spotify does not have an official promotion service (like Adwords for Youtube), there are tons of third party services out there varying from plain-sight obvious scams to possibly genuine. However, as you can imagine, it is always a gamble when trusting someone new to promote your music.

I would happily invest in Spotify official campaigns or any promoters that Spotify endorses, but they do not exist?

I honestly wished I could pin-point which particular promoter was the culprit as I've done full-blown $2,000-$3,000 press release campaigns and smaller, more focused Spotify campaigns for a particular track.

It feels a little unfair that there were no warnings to this or having a penalty whereby the "fake streams" would be just removed instead of the entire track. Of course, the Spotify analytics could give me a red flags if the promoter was using fishy-methods, but by that time, there's nothing I can do to reverse it.

This has hurt me real bad and I am absolutely devastated.

What can I do about it now? Is there a chance Spotify would show some compassion and reinstate the track?

Am I even allowed to reupload the track again under a different or same ISRC number?

Any advice would be dearly appreciated.

[JoseCorteReal]

My father was against music. But at that time the world was different.
Today when we thought that Spotify was changing de market for better and
musicians wouldn’t be used by major companies
Everything turned into an **bleep**. Spotify entered the big companies game, and
if you don't sign with them Spotify is taking you down. They won’t let you
grow. We need a great lawyer to solve this! Cheers. José

[JoseCorteReal]

I tried but they say that they trust Spotify, and I’m guilty. Some songs
were taken down after 60 plays…Silly attitude. No problem. Cheers. José

[PeterDenmark]

Hi José

Do you re-release withe the same UPC and ISRC numbers, with the same distributer ?

Or do you let the distributer create new UPC and ISRC numbers ?

Best regards, Peter

[UndergroundMole]

So this problem isn't 'solved' then lol. As helpful as Spotify support team could be, they assured me the issue lies with my distributor (RouteNote), who just kept referring me to Spotify & eventually said they can't do anything to reinstate my release. So that's it - our releases get removed (often wrongly so) & we can never get them back up again? 

Seems very unfair, especially having not used any suspicious or artificial services at all & seems odd that some random would dump a load of fake streams on my music. I didn't notice any sudden spikes in my stats, only gradual & VERY unfair that my WHOLE release has been removed, even the tracks that CLEARLY have no artificial streams. So what are we paying distributors for if they can't offer any support in these cases? We're paying them to put our music up, not take it down! I wonder if there are any other distributors in particular that can offer better support in these instances? 

Keen to know if anyone's made any progress with this - currently I have no idea what to do. Kind of holding off releasing anything whilst I consider switching distributors. Sad times!

[ArgiePop]

Keep badgering the Routenote support team, they eventually cave in and reinstate the release, but it takes a few months of permanent ticket engagement to achieve this. 

[erikstearns]

TuneCore won't. As a matter of fact, they are very belligerent when it
comes to reinstatement.

[Fabtones]

Thanks for your feedback! CDBaby was not in my corner at all. Glad to hear there are still some good guys out there. I re-released the album With another distributor and so far so good.

[Fabtones]

Thanks! I guess I didn't badger them enough. But I did re release the album with a new distributor and so far so good.

[erikstearns]

That's usually the way to go. Who did you go through?

[erikstearns]

I heard the same thing about them and Distro Kid as well.

[Fabtones]

I'm using Amuse out of Sweden
Please type your reply above this line -##

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
Get Outlook for Android<>

[erikstearns]

Seriously?! Another Swedish company?? First, Spotify, a company from that
country is responsible for removing two thirds of my material, thanks to
their unjust streaming fraud algorithms, then you have Ikea, which makes
junk furniture that has impossible assembly instructions. You have to be
kidding me.

[Fabtones]

I'm very sorry for having your catalogue pulled. That totally sucks!!
CDbaby who are American are In bed with spotify too. I've heard the same from colleagues about distrokid. The distributors and Spotify are in bed with each other and don't work hard enough to defend us.

"Amuse" is a newer, smaller company and so far they have been responsive and helpful with my re-released album.
I have a feeling better platforms are developing as we speak and thousands of us will jump ship.

[erikstearns]

Thanks for that information. That confirms what I've been hearing also from
my sources as well.

How do I find that distribution service you were talking about?

Thanks, again,

Erik.

[Fabtones]

Hey Erik
Here's who I'm using now.
AMUSE dot io
In case they erase the link.
Best of luck!

[erikstearns]

Awesome. Thank you. Somebody also recommended Priam dot com as wll. So
I'll check your suggestion too.

Thanks again.

[hostbodies]

Does anyone want to file a class action lawsuit with me? 

[erikstearns]

Yes

[KXLL3RB]

Let me tell you something . I got the same email from Distrokid . The funny thing is that they flagged my song as artificial but all my streams were from Discover Weekly , Release Radar , Shuffle and Radio . I talked to the support and when I mentioned this and send them a screenshot , they ended the chat immediately . I've made around 100k from that and now all the money I spend on Facebook ads are wasted and ROI is not even 1% of what I invested . Spotify do this to artist who are indie and let me tell you why , basically all the big labels are directly in conversation with Spotify , basically if you know the big three they basically buy business , that means they buy label who are indie and get them under the umbrella . Spotify even has AI artist with fabricated history and stuff . They basically don't want us to make any money as it is a business , not an art anymore. That is why I have moved to YouTube permanently I upload music to all platforms just to be there , but I don't even promote it as I know I will be **bleep** again . Y'all need to understand this , they don't care about you till your making money for them .

[erikstearns]

I know what you mean. It makes me disgusted to be in the music business
anymore. They hide when the truth is shown to them and they made a mistake,
all just to hide their profits and protect their power over the small
artists. It's a shame! This is one example of why I lose faith so much in
humanity, especially when it comes to the corporate world.