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Stop Playlist Scams

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
Comments
DoomNation

It might not be necessary to disable all links or email addresses since there can be legit uses for it, but definitely blacklist some links from the obvious offenders. I don’t think they will keep changing their website address to keep up.

kingmik

You are 100% correct on these scam playlists. Unfortunately it is much easier to punish the artists than to stop them. There are ways to report them but they just change to another playlist.
Here is what Spotify told me to do if you notice you've been placed on one of these playlists:

Report Playlist

https://support.spotify.com/au/artists/contact-spotify-anonymous/?state=showChatBox

When your music's been added to any suspicious playlist, you can report the playlist by following these steps so it can be taken down:
1. Click/tap the 3 dots near the title of the playlist in question
2. Select 'Report'
3. Choose the appropriate topic
4. Complete the form and click/tap 'Submit'

 

The report will be investigated on a case-by-case basis.

 

You can also contact us immediately, and we'll take note of your song that was added on the playlist, as to exclude it on any reports and as justification that you've contacted us and you didn't want anything to do with the playlist.

Anadi

I am unsure of how often Spotify reviews these ideas and genuinely considers implementing them. Would you mind voting for the following idea as well?

 

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Spotify-HiFi-Lossless-Music/idi-p/5901996

 

As an Audiophile, we need lossless audio on Spotify, a feature that is already offered by competitors.

dannybruhphantom

is that how No Friends by HappyBirthdayCalvin got taken down in 2023

KelseyJean

Same thing just happened to my band, Spotify Artist Support is absolutely no help. Conversations with them got shut down several times, they keep trying to put it on the distributor but the distributor is telling us we need to go through Spotify. 

OGruber

Are you with Distrokid? It seems it happens almost anyone who uses Distrokid, including me

erikstearns
No. TuneCore, which is just as bad.
erikstearns
Yeah, and even if you do get Spotify to rescind their takedown, middleman
corporations like TuneCore, Distro Kid, etc. won't put them back up and
steel your royalties.
OGruber

That's crazy... And sometimes my tracks are getting into playlists without me knowing, so I truly don't understand the logic. They blame me, take my money and they keep doing it for years. Spotify is to blame because their support are so rude and close my requests and inquiries... 

erikstearns
Yeah. The same thing happened with me and I didn't even authorize anything
like that.