In our ongoing effort to fight Artificial Streaming (“AS”), ANS sends clients the monthly AS reports that we receive from Spotify regarding their catalog. The report includes all the data clients need to monitor AS, take preventive actions to minimize this issue, and hopefully eliminate it. Please note that Artificial Streams are identified and reported by the DSP. ANS simply communicates to clients what we receive from the DSP.
ABOUT ARTIFICIAL STREAMS
The streaming services work diligently to ensure streams reflect genuine user listening intent. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. AS can result from any of the following causes:
- Fraudulent behavior (when someone is trying to increase the stream count in order to obtain more royalties)
- Naivete with using so-called marketing/playlisting services which use unauthorized methods to generate streams.
- “Ricochet” AS when fraudsters play random tracks in order to appear like normal users. In such cases, you or your client are not the instigators of the AS, but random victims. DSPs are aware of this phenomenon and will not usually take action against your assets unless the number of AS becomes significant (it’s not possible to give you a precise number).
Unfortunately, the result is the same in all cases:
- The DSP will withhold royalties for all such AS
- The related tracks’ streaming count will not be incremented for any AS
- The related tracks will be blacklisted from all official playlists
- The DSP will take down the associated release(s) from their service, in the case of Apple, Pandora, and Spotify, this is a permanent takedown.
Please note that repeated AS activity from your catalog may be cause for limiting or canceling your access to certain DSPs, and may ultimately result in the termination of your account as required by our need to protect our account’s standing with the DSP.
IF YOU HAVE ARTIFICIAL STREAMS IN YOUR ACCOUNT
Please notify ALL the artists on the attached document to stop any such behavior. We require that you contact all artists with an AS count above 1000 (per track) in order to prevent the count from increasing. (Any AS count below 1000 is likely the result of other factors).
Assuming that these are not bad actors, request that these artists immediately contact the marketing/playlisting services they have retained and have them stop their campaigns at once.
In cases of significantly high AS we will notify you and may issue a takedown of the related assets in order to prevent additional AS. In such cases, please do not redeliver the related releases until you have confirmed that the cause of the AS has been addressed and confirmed with us that you can redeliver the related releases.
HOW TO AVOID ARTIFICIAL STREAMS
Communicate with your clients about this issue and ask them to avoid any paid or unpaid services that guarantee streams or playlist placements. These services are probably using illegitimate practices without your client’s knowledge. Make sure they understand how important it is to avoid using bots, click farms, or any pay-to-play schemes. These services can threaten your hard work and put your catalog and account at risk.
Learn more about it in the following link, and share them with your clients:
VIDEO: WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL STREAMING?
SPOTIFY FOR ARTISTS: ARTIFICIAL STREAMING EDUCATION
