Spotify removing my track despite me doing nothing wrong

[lukewood]

Hi,

I have just received an email from Distrokid informing me that my track has been removed due to artificial streaming activity. I have not paid or sanctioned any such services.

I have had two incidents when I noticed I had been added to dodgy playlists: the first Wavr.AI and the second RepostNG. I suspect these companies scraped my track after using Distrokid's Wheel of Playlist. 

Both times, I contacted Spotify for Artists through their live chat to report that I suspect they are bots and do not sanction this. I think the companies add songs to their playlists, hoping that people will subscribe to a package. I did not. 

I have contacted Spotify several times. They basically tell me there is nothing they can do. By their tone, I suspect they think I am in the wrong. They auto-close the chat. 

I have contacted Distrokid; they have not responded. 

After this, I will not use Distrokid again and will transfer the other tracks to CD Baby. There is something very fishy about this - I don't think any reasonable person could believe that I am in the wrong. 

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Regards,

Luke

[Susan_GP]

Hey @lukewood,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community.

We understand you already tried contacting our Artist Support team, however, for more info on the removal of your song it's best to reach out to them again. You can send them the same info so they can take a look. We don't have access to your account or records from here.

We're here should you have any other questions.

[Otherinsects]

I had the same problem, support are not interested at all . I talked just now with a person but they would not help, its really unfair treatment of small artists, I’m sure that if some dodgy playlist using bots added Taylor swifts new song to their list (without her or her teams engagement, you wouldn’t be blanket remove the album without any recourse 

[djmadwax]

Exactly the same thing happened to me! I'm going through Distrokid and also used wheel of playlist. They pulled my track with the same false claim!

[Paperlightning]

Confirming the exact same things, with the same Waver.ai playlist, happened to me yesterday. No warning - they just removed my track despite me doing absolutely nothing but post my track! 

[chach_is]

And they don't provide any information on what playlists cause the issue. This could be a bug in their algorithm for all I know. If you can't provide info that helps musicians rectify their issues, what's the point of putting music on Spotify?

[chach_is]

Btw, I spoke to a couple of agents on Spotify and it looks like its Distrokid that sends the metadata that leads to taking down the album. Did anyone else find the same? And if so, would it be DK that needs to be  approached to fix this?

[costisX]

CD Baby is not much beter. Avoid them at all costs! They removed one of my favorite artist's tracks and basically could not do anything else. He was with them for more than 10 years. They gave no explanations and no support whatsover. Just a small local artist, nothing fancy. Find some local distributor is better solution I think.The smaller the better, I think. 

[INFLAYMES69]

FKN LIAR!  I was told they use AI streaming and it's copywritten and they can't discuss it.  Then they end the call.  FK YOU!

[FREERENT]

It just happened to me as well I have no  bots being utilized and they  took my entire album down\This **bleep**!!!!

[Yvo_Kok]

Same here. One track of an eight year old jazz classical crossover album (7k streams at Spotify) got killed by the cyber attack of a dodgy playlist. In my case the distribution went through RouteNote. They informed me by a noreply e-mail. How can small artists protect themselves against such criminal playlists?

I'm considering to remove all my tracks from Spotify (myself) and quit my membership of the platform that ruines small artists that don't do anything wrong. 

[Jeff_N]

Same Deal, I put an instrumental banjo album on Spotify through CD baby several years ago and was informed it was just removed for "artificial streaming" - I've never hired a promotional company or anything like that so I'm genuinely confused about his (and sad that my music has been taken down). I've reached out to CD baby a couple times now with no luck and I've discussed this with Spotify who said there was nothing they could do (and quickly closed the chat) - I guess I'm learning that my experience isn't that unique : (

[bellaaron]

Hey Luke, the same thing just happened to me, but in the opposite, I was going to switch from CD baby to Distro Kid for the same reason—being ignored. My music has suddenly been pulled, and I have no clue why. I’m being completely shut out. I have paid no services to promote my album. It just seems ridiculous that the artists are responsible for policing playlists.