Key Highlights
- A federal lawsuit was filed in California federal court against Spotify for failing to prevent streaming fraud.
- The lawsuit claims that billions of fraudulent streams, generated by bots, boosted Drake’s streaming numbers, causing financial harm to legitimate artists.
- Spotify declined to comment on the litigation but stated it invests in systems to combat bot activity and protect artist payouts.
- The bot problem is perceived as a challenge for the entire industry, with estimates suggesting up to 10% of streams may be fake.
Spotify Sued Over Alleged Failure to Prevent Streaming Fraud
A federal lawsuit filed on Sunday in California federal court accuses Spotify of failing to prevent streaming fraud, including allowing “billions” of bot-generated streams that allegedly boosted rapper Drake’s streaming numbers. The lawsuit was brought by RBX, a rapper whose real name is Eric Dwayne Collins.
Collins’ suit claims some of Drake’s songs have garnered more than a hundred million streams from areas with zero residential addresses, suggesting the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) to disguise locations and apparent bots that “moved unreasonable locations between songs.” This practice, according to the lawsuit, has caused “massive financial harm” to legitimate artists because their earnings are diminished by the inflated user base.
Spotify’s Response
A Spotify spokesperson declined to comment on the litigation but told Forbes it “in no way benefits from the industry-wide challenge of artificial streaming” and invests in “always-improving, best-in-class systems to combat it and safeguard artist payouts with strong protections like removing fake streams, withholding royalties, and charging penalties.” However, the company did not provide specific details on these measures.
Industry Context
The problem of bot-generated streams is not unique to Spotify. Eric Drott, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Fine Arts, said it’s “a bit of an open secret that this is something various actors of every level of the music industry engage in, or have engaged in in the past.” In 2023, The Financial Times reported that music executives estimated as much as 10% of music streams are fake. Additionally, Drott noted that estimates about how bad the bot problem is vary widely because streaming platforms have an interest in downplaying the issue.
Spotify has acknowledged fraudulent streams “dilute the royalty pool, shifting revenue from legitimate artists to bad actors” and claims it invests heavily in detecting, preventing, and removing artificial streams. However, the company also reported that it had removed over 75 million AI-generated tracks over the past year and is rolling out a new spam filter this fall.
Expert Analysis
The bot problem is not just limited to Spotify; other streaming services face similar challenges. In December 2024, Drake accused Universal Music Group (UMG) of conspiring with him to artificially inflate streams on Spotify through bots, a claim UMG denied.
Spotify’s efforts to combat bot activity are part of a broader challenge in the music industry. As streaming services continue to grow in popularity, so too do the challenges they face in ensuring fair and accurate metrics for artist payouts. The lawsuit against Spotify highlights the need for more transparency and robust measures from streaming platforms to address this issue.
