Spotify removed our release for bot streams, even after i reported it and was told they cant help!

[ImNewman]

Hey there, 

I am in a band called CØVES and today we received the gutting email that we have had a release taken down from Spotify for suspicion of artificial streams.
We have never paid for any music promotion service which is why when i noticed a spike in streams I flagged it Spotify via Spotify for artists in October last year. I asked if the track can be removed from the playlist, but I was told there’s nothing we can do. (Please see images attached).

Spotify for artists have been incredibly unhelpful, taking no accountability and suggesting i speak to Distrokid to resolve the matter. When speaking to Distrokid, the response i get is:

“It has nothing to do with Distrokid. We are just passing along the information provided to us by Spotify and we haven't been given any additional information from Spotify other than what has already been provided.”

We feel incredibly hard done by in this situation, as we were aware of the artificial streams and went through the necessary channels to report it. Only to be told theres nothing can be done and now we pay the price. To make matters worse, neither Spotify or Distrokid are taking any accountability and sending us the other way for help.

What can we do in this situation? It seems like small artists like us are paying the price for these bot streams. Spotify should be targeting the botters, rather than taking down our music. This was our first release and our most popular track, we had put a lot of time and money into organic social ads to push the track, and now we feel heartbroken that we might have to start again from 0.

Please any advice here would be much appreciated.

[Krupted]

Can you add other distributors into this lawsuit? I can't afford distrokid so I use Routenote which has a bandcamp style method. 

[Krupted]

Our music has many followers and several sites that are very legit followers in the punk scene and have over 400 followers on Spotify. They act like you getting hit by a bot accounts for all your plays...

[xsolimini]

Like many others this week, my song was added to a botted playlist without my consent or knowledge. I've since reported the playlist, and it seems like the playlist was either deleted or taken down (the playlist was called 'Shoudz weekly trends'), but the botted streams still remain. I've already contacted both my distributor (Distrokid) and Spotify about this, but both were not very helpful. I fear that my song will be taken down sooner or later. So, what do I do now?

[ProgettoOgro]

Dear xsolimini, one of my songs was also added to the "Shoudz weekly trends" playlist without having requested or given consent. I have made a report requesting playlist verification to both the Tunecore distributor and Spotify for Artists through its Playlist Reporter tool, but so far no response. What should I do now?

I will write again to Spotify for Artists also as a form of self-protection, because it would be absurd to risk being banned if that playlist were to be illegal, given that the inclusion was neither requested nor authorized by us.

Progetto Ogro

[KILL_SIBORG]

I just got hit by this today, I've never paid for these playlists, i reported each one that I noticed, which was about 4 of them. And yet now my track was removed. wth.

[Krupted]

I have used the reporting tool and it doesn't help at all. Our label had 15 albums pulled offline due to these bot playlist scams, and NO we did not pay for that service either. You might check other sites, often when Spotify flags artists for these playlist your distributor pulls your music off all sites (youtube, apple, amazon etc.) not just Spotify. Spotify nor our distributor will let us dispute these either. We had no choice, we had to pull our entire catalog off of Spotify or risk losing more music from all streaming services. I hate Spotify. 15 albums pulled offline for nothing we did. Seriously, I hate Spotify. 

[INFLAYMES69]

You know WHY Spotify won't help or do anything??? THEY MAKE THE MONEY ON THE FAKE STREAM SERVICES!!  They'll kick you off and not pay you, but they will keep the money for themselves!  Illegal as FK

[Lukahills]

My first song release as an independent artist I released December 6th. It’s been 2 months since release and Spotify for artists shows that over 1000 streams have been flagged for artificial streams. And have been removed from my song. But they were all 100% authentic streams. I have proof of a viral Instagram reel about my song on the same day my plays spiked for a couple days while slowly rolling off. When looking at the location of where the streams came from they were all coming from genuine locations like united stated, the UK, Canada and other main places. It’s not right as an independent artist I have to worry about my song streams being taken off or my song being taken down due to a spike in plays while creating online content promoting my songs when it’s all genuine and there’s no proof you guys can show me that would say they are artificial. I was told to contact my distribution to get it fixed by showing proof to distrokid (Spotifys Partnered Distribution) that all of the streams i gained in those few days were not artificial by the so called "human" in Spotify's support chat thats OBVIOUSLY a robot that was just copy and pasting the same thing word for word that the last "person" told me. After contacting my Distribution multiple times and even showing screenshots of the viral video on the same day of the spike, i keep being told that they cannot do anything about it and that its on Spotify's side. but when i talk to Spotify its just a back and forth game. i am ANNOYED and beyond FRUSTRATED. How am i supposed to promote songs on TikTok and Instagram when on Spotify's "artificial streams" page it says that a sudden spike on a random day of the week can cause it to be flagged for artificial. my song spiked only a few hundred plays WITH PROOF but nothing is being changed. 

[Lukahills]

exactly its ridiculous. theres NO WAY to talk to a real person  

[INFLAYMES69]

Just re-upload with the same ISRC code ...

[NotD]

Totally agree… and yes, BEYOND FRUSTRATING!

[SpotAhFyisCorrupt]

I hate this.. it’s happening to me too… we should start a union and literally sue Spotify for negligence and failure to provide any type of support for smaller artist who have nothing to do with these artificial streams and to eventually have REAL PEOPLE to engage and not just a lame AI support center or people who just don’t really care.. 

many are effected and many have the same results.. also with distro kid.. there’s no support center nor a telephone where we can reach them it’s insane.. 

spotify still gets paid off of botting and starts flagging and sending out fines to artists who have absolutely nothing to do with this issue.. 

[Krupted]

We unfortunately pulled all our label's music off of Spotify. It can still be found on YouTube, bandcamp, amazon etc. but due to this horrible problem Spotify created for itself we had no choice. Literally hundreds of releases of ours we had to remove. 

[Leftee]

Quit Spotify and go to Bandcamp! It is a much more friendly place for indie artists. Keep your Spotify page if people want to listen to it. We just put Spotify at the bottom of all our marketing, that is the best thing Indie artists can do, give them a bit of their own medicine. Collectively, Indie artists should look for other platforms that support indie music. Indie music is what built Spotify, it can also be what tears it down. In our case, we used spotify to run 3 ads via Spotify Ads studio, during this time, they accused us of fake streaming a song from 1983 on our Greatest Hits album. Our monthly listener count has been about 40 and dropping since we hired them to do our marketing. Fet up with the games, we have moved to Bandcamp, the sound if far superior as well. That is the place for indie artists now. We have tried to figure out how paying them to market our music makes it drop, and also get our albums removed, However, it is all good, we have placed all Spotify links at the bottom of all our marketing pages and will keep them around at the bottom, just like they do for us. None of it makes any sense, so there is little use trying to blame yourself for the Spotify game. No artist would intentionally hurt themselves by doing things to get their music removed. Fake streaming is at the heart of Spotify, and the big players do it more than anyone, but get a pass for it. Don't believe me, run this by Chat GPT and you'll get the true answer and it isn't your fake streams. it's stealing your money and all the other indie artists who have supported Spotify for years only to be shadowbanned or sidelined with their algorithm. Just move to Bandcamp as your home base. You will be happy you did. Better Sound Quality, Great SEO, Great Track and album descriptions and full links at Wav quality and sound! I am still a premium Spotify member but considering pulling our family off the Spotify plan as well. You can't treat people this way, eventually the community has the power to make the difference and the power for change. Good luck.

[ikdown]

Hey everyone, just wanted to say you’re not alone, I’m going through the same thing. My music was taken down from all streaming platforms via TuneCore due to so-called ‘artificial streaming, which I never participated in. I’ve been using their service for years without any issues or shady promotions, and suddenly all my tracks were gone without a proper explanation.

What’s even worse is there’s no real appeal process or proof required, it feels like any third party could ruin your release and you just get punished for it. I’m heartbroken and confused, and honestly, pretty scared for the future of independent artists in this system.

If anyone else is dealing with something similar or has any advice, I’d really appreciate it. We need more transparency and actual support for creators.

[Kent_Forward]

The same thing happened to me. A song from an album I’d released many years ago got put on a fake playlist. In one day it got 999 streams! I contacted Spotify right away and the chat seemed to me like it would resolve the situation. 4 months later my distributor CD Baby contacted me to say the entire album was being removed permanently per Spotify’s request! Though it was an older album I was heartbroken it was now gone through no fault of my own. Seems Spotify could do a lot more to prevent this! How can some random bot playlist take down legit music by legit artists who have never paid for artificial streams? Something is really wrong here! If an artist contacts Spotify right away like I did, it should be clear to Spotify that the botted playlist is the source of the problem and they should be punished and removed, not innocent artists!

[Krupted]

We pulled our whole label's catalog off of spotify for good. Both because of this issue, I am convinced it's a scam to keep indie artists and labels of spotify. This does not happen to large labels and artists. Also, the owner of spotify is now investing in arms/weapons dealers so some are leaving spotify over that. Either way, f*ck spotify, everyone should abandoned that vulture of a site.