We may contact you about suspicious streaming activity if we have reason to believe your streams are not coming from real listeners.
What is Streaming Fraud?
This is when an artist directly (via their own streaming account(s)) or indirectly (via a third party) manipulates streams on their releases in order to increase their royalty payments.
We work with the streaming platforms and our distribution partners to stamp this out.
Who loses out from streaming fraud?
For most streaming services, there is no fixed amount of royalties per stream.
Instead, platforms have "pots of money" made up of the revenue generated from their listeners - both premium subscriptions and advertisements.
This "pot" is then divided up amongst all artists based on their percentage of the total streams.
This means that streaming fraud is directly taking money away from other artists.
What happens when we detect suspicious streams?
If the activity continues after we have contacted you, we have no option but to takedown your music and remove you from the platform.
Who else might be manipulating streams on my releases?
If we discover suspicious streaming activity on your releases, but you have not been manipulating your own streams, it is most likely to be the work of a dodgy marketing company. If you have paid a third party or promoter to help boost your streams we recommend getting in touch with them immediately and terminating their service.