In our ongoing effort to fight Artificial Streaming ("AS"), Revelator shares with clients the monthly AS reports provided by various DSPs. These report include all the data needed 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. Revelator simply communicates to clients what we receive from the DSP.


CAUSES OF 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:

  1. Fraudulent behavior (when someone is trying to increase their stream count and/or obtain more royalties).

  2. Naively using a seemingly legitimate marketing/playlisting service which in fact uses unauthorized methods to generate streams.

  3. Being placed on a fraudulent playlist without your consent. Fraudsters services will often do this in order to convince artists that they can increase their streams.

  4. “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.

  5. Fans seeking to increase the popularity or financial gains of an artist.


Important consequences of the above:

  • Whereas #1 and #2 are the results of your artists' actions, #3, #4 and #5 typically happen without their involvement. Nevertheless, it is all considered AS and the DSP will deduct these streams from the asset's stream count and not pay any royalties for them.
  • Because some AS is not the result of an action by your artist, you cannot therefore assert that no AS has happened simply because your artist states that they have not engaged in any potentially fraudulent promotional campaigns. Your artist may be telling the truth and yet AS has occurred!



CONSEQUENCES OF ARTIFICIAL STREAMING & WHY IT IS HARMFUL

Regardless of the cause of your reported AS, 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.

  • Damage your recommendations (by associating you to completely unrelated artists appearing on the same AS playlist).

  • The track and/or artist may be demoted from all recommendation algorithms (an equivalent of shadow banning on social media).

  • Provide misleading data about your actual audience and hurt your credibility within the industry.

  • Waste of money that could instead have been spent on legitimate promotional efforts.

  • The DSP may take down the associated release(s) from their service, in the case of Apple, Pandora, and sometimes Spotify, this is a permanent takedown.

  • Spotify only: for any track that Spotify identifies as being significantly abused, Spotify will charge Revelator a 10 Euro fee. Revelator's policy is to pass this fee on to you.

  • Revelator may take down and permanently block any track found to be engaging in AS either repeatedly and/or in significantly high manner. 

  • Revelator may withhold related royalties for such tracks.

  • Revelator will terminate all accounts found to be repeatedly engaging in AS.



WHAT TO DO IF YOU RECEIVE A REPORT FOR ARTIFICIAL STREAMS IN YOUR ACCOUNT

  • First, identify all artists with an AS count above 100 (per track) and let them know of the consequences and penalties for AS (see the section above). Tracks with 100 or less reported AS are most likely victims of causes #3, #4 and #5 above. But also pay attention to any 1 release or account (Client) having multiple such tracks as this may also indicate illegitimate action. Keeping a low AS count across multiple tracks is a known technique used by fraudsters & illegitimate services to avoid detection while ensuring a significant amount of AS streams.
    • For cases where a release or account receives less than 100 AS, you can safely ignore it and consider it as inevitable "noise" (causes #3, #4 and #5 above).
  • Secondly, send all these artists the 4 educational links below and tell them that: 
    • If they're using a marketing service guaranteeing streams, it is most likely fraudulent and they should ask this service to stop their campaign immediately. The longer the campaign runs, the more likely they are to incur fines and ruin their ranking in recommendations.
    • If they're running an ad campaign (for example Spotify or Facebook ads), they should gather proof of these campaigns (screenshots, links, etc.) and send you these in order to file an appeal with the DSP.
    • (Spotify only) If your artist sees that they are receiving a lot of streams from a playlist that seems suspect, have them report this playlist to Spotify using this form. Such playlists will likely have some/all of the following characteristics:
      • Hundreds of tracks of very disparate genres
      • Very few saves
      • Some greyed out/unavailable tracks
      • Most of the artists will be unknown with very few Monthly Listeners
      • A creator who has created a lot of other playlists with the above characteristics
    • Educational links:
  • If you suspect that your artist/client is a bad actor, we further encourage you to take down their entire catalog and terminate their account.
  • 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.
  • Whatever you do, do not simply ignore these AS reports! Continually receiving a significant amount of AS can result in Revelator terminating your entire account.


HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR ARTISTS WHILE AVOIDING 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 — even if those services claim to be completely legitimate and comply with the DSPs Terms of Service. Very few services truly employ non-artificial methods of audience development. Revelator knows only these services to legitimately and safely promote your music (in alphabetical order):

  1. Boost Collective (most verified and trusted by Revelator)
  2. IndieMono
  3. Playlist Push
  4. SoundPlate
  5. Spotify Discovery Mode (please reach out to our Support team to enquire more about this program)
  6. Submit Hub
  7. Un:hurd Music