Spotify vs artificial streams

September, 2024

So you've spent all your time writing music, waiting for your distributor, submitting to playlist curators, and finally getting a placement. After all that, you can finally sit back and enjoy your hard work, right?

Well... not always. I recently submitted to Attack Magazine tunes under 1000 plays that need to be heard, and when I received an email back from their editor saying it was accepted, I was over the moon.

I checked an unhealthy amount of times on my Spotify for Artists page and could see some more streams, which was great; I then awoke one morning to find I had over 1000. Wow I thought, that really was an overnight success (love a cheesy line :D). However, my joy was short-lived when I received an email from my distributor shortly after titled:

ALERT: Your music has been removed by Spotify due to artificial streaming activity

Spotify has detected that the majority of streams on some of your track(s) were artificially streamed. As a result, Spotify has removed the release(s) containing those track(s) from their streaming service. Your music has not been removed by any other platform and is still live everywhere else where you've chosen to distribute it. For more details, please log in to your DistroKid account.

DistroKid Automated mailbot

To say I was in shock was an understatement I was racking my brain thinking what could have happened. I then started thinking what can I do? I formed a plan of action, which consisted of gathering evidence, contacting Attack, Spotify, and Distrokid to alert them to what had happened, and then trying to get the playlist removed and my music back online.

Evidence gathering

After looking at my profile on Spotify, I found that I had been added to a playlist called "onlyhits 2024" run by the website onlyhits.club. Looking further into my Spotify for Artists account, I found that it had only been on there for a few days and then removed. If this ever happens to you, you'll know because you'll see something similar to this:

I then checked other artists on the attack playlist and found that it had happened to some others, too. I took some screenshots to send to Attack / Spotify / Distrokid and then set out to the next task.

Contacting attack

Email written, sent, done.

Other developments

At this point, I'd left it a couple of days and then received an email from Attack telling me I was not alone and that they would look into it (legends). They also sent me some questions, such as the streaming location and playlist name. At this point, I had also been locked out of DiscoKid and had to sign an agreement that I would never use promotional services again before getting access. This annoyed me a bit as it seemed to blame me for using dodgy promotional services rather than getting my account of what happened.

Contacting Spotify

After contacting Attack, I went to Spotify's website and contacted their support team via live chat. I told them my track had been added to a bot playlist without my consent and had now been removed. I also wanted to see if anything could be done about the bot playlist. Here's a summary of what was said.

One of my tracks was added to a bot playlist without my consent and has been removed from Spotify...I need to review the stats for a third party. Do you have access to the data?

Me

...significant levels of artificial streaming have recently been detected on the music of an artist you have access to in Spotify...third party promoters may market themselves as legitimate services the truth is that you cannot trust some of these services are not attempting to generate artificial streams

Spotify for Artists support

...I didnt use a promoter it was added by them without my consent

Me

If you believe all your streams were earned authentically, you can Share info With your distributor or label about the methods used to genuinely promote your music. Your distributor or label can forward this info on to our Content team for review.

Spotify for Artists support

What happens to the bot playlist? are we able to take it down?

Me

I'm afraid this isn't something we can help with. I'll need to close this conversation now, but you know where to find us if you ever need anything else.

Spotify for Artists support

It didn't exactly go as expected. I came away thinking so what now then? Is there really nothing I can do besides report it to my distributor? I'll admit I was pretty bummed out at this point. Either way, it was ticked off, so I moved on to my next task of contacting Distrokid.

Contacting distrokid

I moved to the next phase of the plan and contacted DistroKid through their email service which was pretty simple to find.

My song was added to a bot playlist without my consent I have tried to speak to spotify but they werent very helpful. are you able to tell me what country the streams came from? a third party is investigating the issue for me

Me

If you received a recent notification on your DistroKid account about one or more tracks being removed from Spotify, that means Spotify informed us that a large majority of the streams on the affected track(s) were artificial. As a result, the release(s) containing those track(s) have been removed from Spotify. For more information about this, please carefully review Spotify's Guidelines. From the report sent to us by Spotify we are not able to determine where the artificial streams came from or how they were generated, but this is typically related to promotional services that offer streams or playlist placements in exchange for money. These services can often appear legitimate, and may not be engaged by you directly, but by another party or service that is working on your behalf. If you received this notice, it means most of the streams for your content were generated artificially. Note that you should never use any type of promotional service besides those offered by Spotify directly. Spotify and DistroKid take this matter very seriously, and we urge you and any person or company helping you to refrain from engaging with any promotional services for your Spotify content.

DistroKid Support

I didn't bother responding at this point as DistroKid seemed to be blaming me, like Spotify did, but I'll leave you to make your own conclusions here.

Other developments

There had been some confusion on my part. I thought I had been locked out of my artist account, but I was using the wrong email, lol. So, after logging in and feeling like a donut, I was able to gather all the info Attack needed for their investigation and emailed them straight away.

At this point, feeling disheartened by writing music and using distributors. I left it alone until I heard more from Attack.

A few days later, Attack posted on their Instagram account, stating they had managed to pull the playlist! They had worked with the Association for Electronic Music (https://associationforelectronicmusic.org/) and gotten it taken down, which was great!

Aftermath

So what can you do if this happens to you? Well, from my experience, being vocal about it and joining together with bigger organizations seems to be the way to get it done. Do I believe it would have been taken down if Attack hadn't been involved no lol

Am I going to re-upload the song that was taken down? Hmm, maybe I haven't decided yet. It seems if the cycle cannot be broken, then it's surely going to happen again. To illustrate my point, the OnlyHits playlist is back under the new name OnlyHits instead of the original name Onlyhits, which while hilarious, highlights the problem.

So what can you do?

After speaking to several different artists who were affected by the same playlist promoter as me, I found a couple who didn't have their tracks removed. Here's a summary of what they did so you can follow the same steps and hopefully not get your track removed! (Fingers crossed).

1. Regularly check your Spotify for artists account.
2. If you notice a spike like what is pictured above, then contact Spotify straight away. (Like, why are you still reading this kind of urgent)
3. Explain to them that you think your track has been added to a bot playlist and are concerned that it might be removed.
4. Share the song and the playlist that it was added to with them and ask for confirmation that your song won't get taken down.
5. Check your distribution service policies on artificial streams and switch to another one if they don't meet your needs.

What about others?

I reached out to a number of different artists, professionals and organisations and heres their advice.

I checked my stats and saw a spike... I contacted the Spotify for artist support team. I explained that my track had been added to a bot playlist without my permission and I was concerned that this may get my track flagged for removal. I shared my song with them as well as the bot playlist. I asked for confirmation that this would not lead my track to be removed which they did confirm. It seems that by logging what happened...they knew I didnt pay for it...and so didnt remove it.

SQYD

Basically avoid any service that offers x amount of streams for £. The are bots. Also bear in mind that bots hurt your engagement on Spotify. You need organic shares, likes and for people to listen to your song all the way through. Spotify doesn't like that and it tells them that people dont like your song and so it won't trigger the algorithmic playlists which are incredibly powerful.

Aubrey Whitfield

What about you?

Do you have any thoughts on this? Has it happened to you? If so and you'd me to include your story or feedback feel free to contact me via my instagram