Why fake streams hurt everyone, what happens when they are detected, and how to avoid potentially fraudulent promoters
People generally discover music by themselves. They already know the artist or are dedicated fans, or they hear a song on the radio, on a forum, in a playlist or on YouTube, and then listen to it on a streaming service. These listens generate streaming royalties: the income for the rights holders, such as artists and record labels.
This is called organic or natural streaming, and the modern music industry is built on it. Each stream is a reward for talent and hard work, not for having enough money to push your music onto people.
In short Any attempt to get your music streamed more without people really listening to it is cheating, and the streaming services treat it as fraud. Once your content is caught up in it, there is almost nothing you can do. The only thing you can (and should) do is prevent it. |
What is artificial streaming?
Streams that do not come from real people listening with real interest are called artificial streams. Any attempt to increase your streaming numbers this way is generally treated as fraud by the streaming services.
Artificial streaming has become a serious problem for the music industry. It lowers the earnings of honest artists, labels and distributors. Fake streams add to the total number of streams, but the royalty pool (the money that is shared among all artists) stays the same size. Every fake stream therefore takes money away from someone else. That is why the streaming services see artificial streaming as theft, and income from it as money stolen from other artists.
Figure 1. Fake streams make every real artist's share smaller.
The problem is such that Spotify now charges labels and distributors penalty fees for every track with artificial streaming above certain thresholds. In some instances these penalty fees can then be passed on to the artists.
What constitutes artificial streaming?
Streaming services do not share their artificial streaming detection methods, therefore it is very difficult to challenge them. As far as we know, artificial streaming methods include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Playing your music (an album, a track, or a playlist containing your music) on a constant loop or having one or more other people do this.
- The same as above but on a bigger scale: using bots or scripts to stream your music, often through hacked user accounts, and more recently using AI to obfuscate the origin of the streams.
- Delivering duplicates of the same content under different, often fake, artist names and then employing artificial streaming methods.
- Getting your track onto popular playlists where it does not belong because of its popularity, musical style, target territory or anything else being at odds with the rest of the playlist.
- Posting large numbers of different posts, stories, reels or clips containing your track on social media such as TikTok or Instagram.
- Paying people to play, stream, click on or like posts containing your track.
- "Hiding" your track in popular monetised content that has nothing to do with music, such as gaming streams.
- Paying promoters or marketing companies to do any of the above.
What happens when artificial streaming is detected on your The Source account?
Figure 2. The consequences quickly add up.
- Royalties from artificial streams are withheld. If they have already been paid, they are deducted from your future royalties for up to 18 months afterwards or, in many cases, indefinitely.
- The content involved in artificial streaming is taken down.
- Your access to the Content Portal is blocked.
- Pending the outcome of the investigation that follows, your contract with The Source may be terminated. Any accrued royalties can then be withheld for up to 18 months or, in many cases, indefinitely.
- The streaming services may blacklist (all of) your music.
Prevent it
Make sure your tracks are only streamed organically:
- Never play your music (an album, a track, or a playlist containing your music) on a constant loop all day and never have others do it.
- Do not create excessive amounts of content with your music to post on social media and YouTube.
- Never edit your music into unrelated, non-musical content to post on social media or YouTube.
- Never offer to pay anyone, not even your friends, to stream, like, click or otherwise engage with your content.
Thoroughly check promotion services
Most of the tricks used to boost streaming numbers are out of reach for the average person. But there are many people and companies offering promotion services that promise to increase your streams. Be very careful with these offers: they may use some of the tactics above or pay others to do it for them.
This is what such an offer can look like:
Figure 3. A fictional example of a dodgy promotion service, with its red flags.
Do NOT hire or pay these people Stay away from anyone who: • promises or guarantees playlist placements, • promises or guarantees a number of streams, clicks or likes, or • promises or guarantees other numbers that suggest audience engagement or streams. NEVER PAY for a promised or guaranteed number of streams! |
How to recognise a trustworthy promoter
Make sure that any promotion people or services you hire:
- Have their own website with real contact details, such as an existing office address and real names.
- Have good independent reviews and are recommended on many artist blogs and vlogs.
- Communicate in a factual way and answer your questions briefly, instead of overwhelming you with marketing talk, numbers, name-dropping and past results.
- State clearly that they only aim for organic engagement.
- State clearly which tactics they use.
- Do not guarantee specific numbers of streams or playlist placements.
- Let you contact previous clients for references.
Figure 4. Trustworthy promoter or not?
A promotion service working in good faith only guarantees effort, NOT results!
What you can do to increase your streams
These tactics are allowed and can help you reach more listeners:
- Plan your releases for maximum impact. Download our Release Rollout guide.
- Pay for adverts on Spotify, Facebook and YouTube.
- Pitch your music through Spotify for Artists.
- Ask us to help you market your release. Sometimes we even have a small budget to help you on your way, and we can pitch your release to several streaming services.
- Approach playlist curators and ask them to feature your release.
Any questions about this? Write to support (support@the-source.eu).
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