You must have heard that Spotify started charging £10 as a penalty from labels and distributors for each track that has artificial streaming activity. Yes, you heard it right. Not only Spotify but also Apple Music, YouTube, and others are penalizing fraudulent activities, including artificial streaming.
Besides the fee, they will remove the artificial streams from the official sales report and take down your affected releases and catalogs. You may get fined more than once. For example, if you have five tracks and all of them appear on the fraud report, you will be charged £50 for that month. There is a chance that they will freeze the account if the fraudulent activity persists.
Not getting the picture? We will make it clear.
Artificial streaming, also known as streaming fraud, occurs when there are any streams that don’t look genuine. That means if you buy streams from illegal third parties who use bots, click farms, and other automated systems. This also includes any artificial inflation in views, follows, and sales reports to generate more revenue.
How to Find the Red Flags in Artificial Streaming
- Some unverified marketing services will offer pay-for-play in exchange for money.
- Some promote themselves on Telegram groups, Discord servers, and underground marketing forums.
- On some freelance platforms, individuals sometimes offer questionable “streaming promotion,” though many of these services are scams.
- Some botting services operate through invite-only communities, using VPNs and residential proxies to avoid detection.
- Some people offer “organic” streaming but actually use bot networks. You can spot these by unrealistic pricing, lack of transparency, and no real audience engagement.
- If you’re working with someone who uses unethical practices, they could inflate your streams without your direct involvement or consent. You need to select trusted partners like Gallery Vision (we don’t promote artificial streaming) while selecting your distributor or marketing agency)
What if this happened without your consent?
If you suspect any fraudulent streams or activities on your account, you can contact the platform directly for assistance. Most platforms have support teams to investigate such issues.
What are the Green Flags?
Do not pay for streams—it’s just that simple. If you use any shortcut to increase streams, your song is at risk.
If you’re looking for legitimate ways to boost your streams, consider:
● Playlist promotion – Submitting your music to curated playlists through platforms like SubmitHub, PlaylistPush, or reaching out to independent curators.
● Social media marketing – Running ads on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to attract real listeners.
● Influencer partnerships – Collaborating with influencers or YouTubers to feature your music.
● SEO & YouTube growth – Optimizing titles, descriptions, and tags to improve organic discovery.
What’s Our Take
As a company that has been running for more than 20 years, we do not promote or support any form of artificial streaming. We strongly believe in organic growth and ethical marketing practices to help artists succeed. Our goal is to provide musicians with legitimate tools and strategies to reach real audiences without risking penalties or account suspensions.
If Spotify detects any tracks involved in artificial streaming, it will deduct the amount from content providers such as distributors. In such cases, we will pass the cost to the Gallery Vision account holder (the artist or label), meaning the amount will be deducted from the artist’s or label’s account.
