What is Artificial Streaming?
We know that artificial and fraudulent streaming (also known as bot streaming) can be a confusing and daunting topic for independent artists and producers. We want to make sure you have the information you need to protect yourself from it.
Artificial streams, otherwise known as bot streams or fraud streams
are streams
that don't reflect genuine user listening intent, including any instance of attempting to manipulate streams by using automated processes (bots or scripts). Artificial/Fraud streaming is a scheme when one person or group of people target an artist to pay for playlist placements, followers, and more on streaming services. Especially, it's payola, (also known as "pay for play") an act that is highly frowned upon in the music industry. Unfortunately, most artists won’t even realize they’re receiving artificial streams until their earnings get frozen or their release gets taken down due to the detection of bot activity on their music.
This can result in your account with various stores and streaming services being terminated as well - yikes!
As a distributor, we must take action as this hurts our relationship with DSPs to deliver original material that promotes organic streaming.
Please check this video from Spotify to get more information about artificial streams.
What happens if bot streaming is detected on my release?
Unfortunately, if bot streaming is detected on your music, your earnings will likely be frozen, followed by your release being taken down. Additionally, your trac account may be subject to termination, as well as your account with various streaming services and stores.
So how do you detect if your music has been subject to fraudulent activity?
There are a few indicators that may help clue you in. First off, check out the playlists where your release has been accepted into using Spotify for Artists – if there are any suspiciously bad grammar playlists present then this could be an indicator of trouble ahead!
Additionally, keep an eye on any unusually high spikes in plays within short periods of time or large numbers of plays coming from certain countries which don’t usually feature prominently among other listeners; these too could signal potential fraudulence at work here so stay vigilant.
What should I do if I think my music is being bot streamed?
If you think your music is being streamed by bots, please send us a message to
content@trac.co explaining why you believe your music is being fraudulently streamed.
If you want to use a third-party promotional service to achieve streams or additional playlisting, it is important to thoroughly examine their authenticity. There is an overwhelming amount of services that claim they will provide organic streaming but in fact, only provide artificial streams. Please ensure every
3rd party playlisting service is authentic before doing any business.
At the end of the day we just want all creators out there doing what they love without having anything stand in their way – so take some time today familiarizing yourself with best practices around avoiding fraudulent streamers and protecting yourself against them should something go wrong further down the line - good luck everyone!!