What are Fake Artists when it comes to music?
In 2022, a rapper called FN Meka was completely fabricated - and promoted all over social media and Spotify. While there were several issues with this, including things like cultural appropriation (a fake black rapper created by an Asian man and promoted by white men for money), there is another issue in play.
Spotify has some other of these completely fabricated artists' music on its platform. And while they may have millions of listeners, these artists aren’t actually real. The music they produce and their image are all digitally created - or, in some cases, nothing beyond the music itself is uploaded.
In 2017, Spotify had already been accused of paying producers to create songs attached to fake artists' names specifically for the premium playlists: Spotify Is Making Its Own Records... And Putting Them On Playlists.
Here was Spotify’s reply at the time:
We do not and have never created ‘fake’ artists and put them on Spotify playlists. Categorically untrue, full stop,” a Spotify spokesperson wrote in an email. “We pay royalties — sound and publishing — for all tracks on Spotify and for everything we playlist. We do not own rights, we’re not a label, all our music is licensed from rightsholders, and we pay them — we don’t pay ourselves". - quote from Billboard.
But with the increase of AI, and since that issue in 2017, there have been more instances of non-real people releasing music on Spotify. In Meka’s case, the lyrics, the melodies, the beat, and almost everything was artificially created - everything except a single human element - the vocals.
Meka is not an exception, though; there are now more ‘fake artists’ on Spotify than ever before. A report from the Swedish paper DN released the name of 830 ‘fake artists’ and found that there were just 20 people behind at least 500 of them (paywalled: DN reveals: The Swedish fake artists who took over Spotify - bigger than Robyn).
The report also states that there are close personal relationships between Spotify management and the founders of Firefly (which is the entertainment company reported to be responsible for many of these fake artists and playlists).
With the news originally breaking about fake artists in 2017, big names in music like Rolling Stone published their own report in 2019 that listed the names of potential fake artists and posed the question - are record labels now getting in on the action to make some money?
So, what does the income and the stats look like for it?
Making Money On Fake Artists
In Firefly’s case, they reported an annual income of $7 million in 2020, which is huge when three years earlier, you could divide that by ten, which was their reported income according to the DN article. What’s more is that most of the fake uncovered artists feature on all of the most streamed playlists, including chill-out and ‘mood’ playlists.
DN isn’t the only Swedish newspaper running exposés - Svenska Dagbladet ran a story that suggested that one of the most successful fake artists was seeing a vast 2.5 billion plays across 2,500 fabricated songs - paywalled: Got billions of plays - with made-up artists.
At the time that went to print, the recorded income for the Chillmi (owned by Christer Sandelin) for the last five years is between SEK 5 million and SEK 16 million, which translates to between $540,000 and $1.7 million.
The report goes on to say that Spotify commissioned Christer to create these playlists and then published them on their own long-play playlists. You might be familiar with some of the names - Chill Out, Study Music, Meditation, etc.
Spotify has continued to deny allegations about fake artists and any involvement.
What do Fake Artists mean for Independent Musicians?
A shocking report by Billboard, released in May 2023, delved into the massive impact that fake artists on Spotify have on the real artists trying to make money from their work.
And the conclusion was tough.
In 2022, both the BVMI, which is the German Music Industry Association, and the CNM, The Center National de la Musique, started to look into the amount of fraudulent streams that were happening. CNM found that up to 3% of the streams in France were fraudulent in 2021 - Full Report In English CNM.
When those figures are applied on a global basis, it would mean that the amount of royalties that are being ‘hijacked’ by the fake artists could be as much as $525 million.
As for independent artists, it means that while a big cog is pushing fake artists on huge playlists and eating up royalties - it is harder than ever before to be seen - and be paid.
Essentially, Indie artists aren’t getting the compensation they could get because of the amount of fake artists.
And for any indie artists who are looking to get the plays they deserve from Spotify, there are a couple of ways that you can get your music on real Spotify playlists.
There are a few ways that fake artists and fraudulent streams are in action right now, and each has its own impact on the industry.
Image taken from the full CNM report.
How does the algorithm impact this?
If streaming platforms are commissioning the work, and if they are being promoted on their biggest playlists - and if those playlists are streamed massively (a lot of if), it would mean that the algorithm will push the songs more.
In one of the reports, streaming fraud is also tied to fake artists. Companies will pay for services that use multiple accounts (or bots) to stream the tracks into the millions, and like and follow the accounts. Because of that algorithm manipulation, fake artists become more popular - and more revenue is funneled their way.
The way we listen to music has also made an impact here - for example, if you ask your home hub (Google or Alexa) to choose a playlist for relaxation or studying - the playlist it selects will typically be one that is recommended or most popular.
And that is where fake artists can capitalize. When we listen to music in this way, we are not checking the track names or the artists, and it is a prime spot for fake artists to be hidden in plain sight - because the algorithm is doing what it is designed to do.
A TikToker, dritzbitz, covered what to look for when it comes to fake artists and playlists, in 5 short videos that you can find in his playlists at the top of his profile. They are insightful but also talk about some of the implications to artists and even what the songs sounds like.
The Future of Music Streaming and Fake Artists
Spotify is not alone in the fake artists and streaming fraud;
“In the beginning, fraud came mostly from unknown artists trying to get visibility, increased promotion or maybe a record or distribution contract, Right now, streaming fraud is more sophisticated and increasingly harder to detect, and we can see activity for the music of artists on all levels.” - Ludovic Pouilly - senior VP of institutional and music industry relations at Deezer.
Each individual streaming platform has to make the decision to act against them and, within that decision, create a structure that doesn’t allow for fraudulent streaming (via bots & stolen accounts) and detect suspicious activities ahead of revenue distribution.
When it comes to many of the other streaming platforms, they have said they are working on it. But in the case of Spotify, who has had numerous reports covering the topic, they have stood firmly against the allegations - despite having multiple journalists run exposes - with the figures and research to back it up.
The BVMI gave a statement to Billboard that said they were "working on tools" that could be used to find artificial streams, but they still considered it to be a work in progress. Some record labels are having a mixed reaction to the possibility of third-party monitoring - some believe it will add a cost that they shouldn’t have to carry, while others, like Hopeless Records, advocate for monitoring, prevention, and enforcement.
And while some streaming services have been open about potential issues in fraud streaming and fake artists, YouTube, Amazon, and Apple - three of the biggest, declined to share any information. With that information being withheld and not making it into the CNM report, the problem could be much more significant.
As for the account holders on any of these streaming services - one thing you can do to help prevent unintentionally supporting fake artists - is to curate your own playlists based on music that you do like - feed the algorithm on things you want to hear and you’ll avoid getting the fakes. You can be more vigilant and about the new music you listen to - and create your own playlists for studying, relaxation, and more.
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