With an estimated 100,000 songs being uploaded to Spotify every day, it’s harder than ever to break through the (literal) noise. And now that AI companies are flooding the DSPs with their so-called “music,” it’s getting even harder to find an audience.
+Is AI Music Taking Royalties From Musicians and Composers?
The pro-rata payment model—currently used by most DSPs like Spotify and Apple Music—calculates payments based on the proportion of streams each song receives versus the total streams on the platform.
In this system, every song earns a share of the total revenue relative to its total streams. This model rewards market dominance over fandom.
Even if you didn’t listen to Taylor Swift last month, she got some of your subscription money. That’s how pro-rata works.
Meaning, to make more money from Spotify and Apple Music, it doesn’t matter how many fans you have, it matters how many streams you get. There are record labels out there currently flooding the DSPs with “functional” music for study or sleep playlists. Oftentimes this music is AI generated. And oftentimes these songs are getting included in playlists with a large listenership which generates lots of streams from passive listeners.
If you’re just looking for the link to report a playlist, click here. If you want more context as to what is actually going on, read on
I’ve been advocating for the user-generated payment model (which SoundCloud currently uses), whereas each Artist directly earns what only their listeners spend on subscription prices (or ad revenue), less the platform’s commission. This model has been proven to reward middle class artists with a more dedicated fanbase (who listen to select artists every month) versus passive listeners who let the algorithm feed them what to listen to. This would also curb a lot of streaming fraud.
Unfortunately, major labels have blocked this initiative since superstars often earn less under this model.
So, the system we are left with is one in which artists and labels are being trained to understand that to make money from streaming, it doesn’t matter how many fans you have, it matters how many streams you get – by any means necessary.
Well, not quite any means, as we’re learning.
Since Spotify launched in the US over a decade ago, playlists have dominated the conversation. Popular playlists with active listenerships (both official editorial and user-generated) can generate a large number of streams in a very short amount of time. On its face, it seems like this is the quickest way to get paid from streaming. So for years, artists and labels have been vying for playlist inclusions at any cost..
However, most realized very quickly that getting included in the wrong playlists will actually do more harm than good.
What are the wrong playlists? Well, for one, any playlist that will mess up your algorithm. See, the algorithm is now far more powerful than any single playlist on Spotify. If your song ends up in a playlist with listeners who don’t resonate, their actions—skipping the track, not liking it, or failing to add it to their own playlists—send negative signals. Spotify’s algorithm may then deprioritize your track in future recommendations.
But even worse, if that playlist is botted – meaning, the vast majority of the streams that come from the playlist are not actually coming from human listeners, but rather bots – then that will send signals to Spotify that this song is attempting to siphon off streams (and revenue) through fraudulent means.
Spotify has been referring to this practice as fraudulent streaming activity. Or artificial streaming activity.
Some Artists and labels knowingly pay for services to artificially inflate their streams. The services will make claims like “buy 100,000 streams for $50” or something like that. But most now know this practice is illegal. And most know that this is a quick way to get you flagged and booted.
What is happening more frequently, however, is an Artist or label will hire a “legit” marketing agency or pay for a service which claims to “organically” increase their listeners and streams via playlists with “real human listeners.” Sometimes these companies are legit and have honest connections to human playlist curators and they vet every playlist they submit to. Sometimes these companies say one thing but do another. Or sometimes, previously “legitimate” playlists can get overrun by bots – either by mistake, by a rival looking to destroy a playlist’s (or artist’s) reputation, or by an impatient playlist curator.
+Paying to get on Spotify Playlists Legally?
In an effort to police all of this fraudulent streaming activity, Spotify and Apple Music have started fining distributors and labels when their songs have artificial streaming activity detected.
Of course, the DIY distributors have been passing along these fines to their Artists and ripping down their music. Some of these distributors (erroneously) claim that it’s Spotify’s policy to take their music down. But most DIY distributors that operate in volume don’t have the time to investigate every notice of perceived fraud. So most operate on a policy of “take down first, ask questions… never.” And it’s up to the artists to fight like hell to get their music back up.
And now what is also happening too often, is Artists who don’t hire any agency, don’t pay for any service whatsoever, are getting their songs ripped down – as I highlighted in my Variety article: Artists Are Seeing Their Music Removed From DSPs for Streaming Fraud They Didn’t Commit
Spotify has privately admitted that they don’t like when distributors rip innocent artists’ music down. But at the same time, Spotify hasn’t actually been able to materially combat this type of fraud.
So in an effort to help artists get ahead of this, Spotify has finally launched a Playlist Reporter Form which enables Artists to let Spotify know if they think their music has been added to a suspicious playlist.
What’s a suspicious playlist? Well, if you see a massive spike in Spotify for artists with all the streams coming from one playlist and it doesn’t look like that playlist has many followers or human listeners, report it!
I’ve been assured by Spotify that nothing negative will happen to you if you report a playlist. On the contrary, you can use this as ammunition if your distributor takes your song down.
To report a playlist, login to Spotify for Artists and click here.
