Did DistroKid *Accidentally* Expose Spotify For FAKING STREAMS?

Did DistroKid Accidentally Expose Spotify For FAKING STREAMS?
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[@Weaverbeats]

Thank you for the reaction man ❤

[@CurtissKingTV]

Awesome work per usual man

[@Bangastarch]

Both legends

[@ghfjfghjasdfasdf]

Solid reporting, fellas 🫡

[@ummmm_okay]

legendssss

[@N.A.STheMuso]

He has another clip on a tunecore and Spotify scandal

[@Trinison7]

Firstly do not think Spotify is the only streaming service in bed with major labels. The majority of major streaming services are in bed with major labels period.

[@heythere6983]

That’s the whole Point of being on a label, their connections

[@HFearthbound]

The most certainly are and nothing will change unless a majority of indie artists leave and rebel against it! But we know that won't happen

[@miksreaction42]

So glad to see other people speaking up about this stuff. I was starting to think nobody else cared. The more we can apply pressure, the more likely we might get some change.

[@kingcrownp7130]

I’ve used the spin the wheel when I first started and my song was botted. Scared my song would be removed I reached out to Spotify customer service, and they pretty much told me thanks for notifying us and don’t spin the wheel anymore

[@AaronSmith-rk4mn]

If the record labels have stake in Spotify, and if they detect 90% of fake streams your shit gets pulled down, and artists are swearing they don’t use bots, then who stands to win if those artists shit gets pulled? Well, the big artists win! Which means the labels win, and Spotify wins (labels again win!). So how many of these artists that don’t “use bots” have been offered record deals and turned them down? That’s the real question! Because it wouldn’t surprise me if the record labels are paying for bots on these artists that are getting thier shit pulled for using bots.

[@STFU_Its_Brenda]

this is what I am afraid of

[@jorgaridya7085]

How do you think popular artists get charts even before the song had being released?

[@Eddie_sto]

I went to look for my music on Spotify and couldn't play my own songs. Now, I'm not the one that's gonna pay subscriptions for each of these music sites, which is why I went thru distro, but when I found the wheel of playlist thing, I was like THIS THE BS RIGHT HERE! I've never cared for Spotify, and I still don't.

[@BanterboxTV]

I tried the wheel of spin several times too but my songs keeps getting out of the Playlist. How can I make it stay for long pls

[@crnkmnky]

@@BanterboxTV 😐 Did you not listen to the video? The Wheel is now a great way to get your song deleted.

[@Xxxxxxxsx]

Spotify needs to be stopped I can’t lie

[@Xxxxxxxsx]

They’re name is always in the news for something bad when is the last time Spotify did something good for art

[@AlexMartinsBrazil]

nah bro, the system is rigged, just play their cards, get your money, them leave

[@Xxxxxxxsx]

@@AlexMartinsBrazil people aren’t getting any money though bro 💀💀💀 and now you have to pay for fake faked streams. What?? 😭

[@AlexMartinsBrazil]

@@Xxxxxxxsx the top artist does it, so why wouldn't we could do it too, 700usd get u 4kusd

[@crnkmnky]

​@@AlexMartinsBrazil 🤨 Bruh, what? More like 700 USD gets your album deleted.

[@angeluvsvid]

Federal or some regulations should get involved and forced Spotify comp runners to show them true stream numbers from actual real bandwidth and locations or shut their stream scheme down

[@py_a_thon]

Courts in that form are not really required tbh. If they (ie:spotify "llc") are violating their fiduciary responsibilities towards shareholders, then the board should remove some individuals and sue them personally to get the golden parachute back? That won't happen though. More than likely, Spotify is just going to lose more and more market share as competitors provide a better product. Or they need to improve their product somehow

[@py_a_thon]

Locations can be spoofed and bandwidth is sometimes cheap af for streaming. If someone wants to waste their time playing wack-a-mole, then whatever. That seems like an incorrect solution to a far more pervasive problem. Convince them to go back to mining scamcoins?

[@UncleBenjs]

TIP for ISRC codes: Register a label for free with the PPL, you will then have the ability to generate your own ISRC codes based on your labels code, and register them on the PPL database to the relevant song, again at no cost.

[@Franksmoney]

Good Point,but I dont think you understanding how Coding works, all they have to do is tweak a Invisible Untrscebale MASTER EDIT CODER ..and "FORK" a new or "ALTER" the ACTUAL, submission List, not (PLAYS). therefore being able to CODE IT OUT THE SYSTEM...🍿👀

[@UncleBenjs]

@@Franksmoney If they did that, with YOUR codes, that would be them committing fraud and breaking the law. I'm not talking about codes assigned to you, as this video is, I'm talking about YOUR codes, for YOUR actual label. From what you said, it sounds like this is something you've never done before and have no real world experience to understand what I am saying

[@UncleBenjs]

@@Franksmoney Have you ever used the PPL database software and filled all the relevant fields when registering a song? Are you sure you understand what I am saying?

[@nvisionbeats]

@@UncleBenjsyo i’m interested in doing what you’re talking about but one question- say you register your songs and get your ISRC code through PPL can you that same code when releasing through DSP’s?

[@UncleBenjs]

@@nvisionbeats That part im not sure of because I was doing it back in the day needing to register for vinyl and cd release, and then making sure the cd version of the codes were embedded on redbook master cd pq coding etc. Although I don't see why not, it wouldn't make sense to not be able to, unless these dsps hold a monopoly and gatekeep over the labels? I've hated all this streaming shit so I've not gotten involved to know that process

[@Fear2Stop]

When I first made that Wheel of Playlist bot video quite a few people mocked me and said I was paranoid… now people are seeing it for themselves. I noticed a lot of folks who used to be sponsored by them no longer are even with them

[@lofimusicbygrizzlybeatz]

Not surprised. Those at the top of editorials seem to be fake profiles

[@CraneandA1]

Truth is it's the audio version of shadow-banning. If your music is positioned to make money and continue to make money it's easier to cry fraud then keep paying out... forever. 🤔

[@crnkmnky]

This conspiracy theory is looking more and more convincing as these runaway robot trains refuse to explain themselves.

[@ummmm_okay]

DING DING DING!!!!

[@K3zz21]

Boom

[@Saasori]

Yes what I'm going thru rn

[@sepsissband]

Great job on this !! We love to see More people taking about this keep going !!

[@KanuKatalyst]

Another one 💎 We need to crowd source for Curtis's bunker before Lucian comes a looking. Love the content brodie 🙏🏿🎧

[@kgfloss4327]

What makes all this crazy is that you don’t even have to be the creator of the song to bot it.. all you need is the link to the song and anyone can throw thousands of bots at your song. That’s really crazy

[@carlosgil4196]

Spotify sound like spot a lie 😂 spot a spy 🐀 spot a con artist robbing innocent pedestrian lmao 🤣

[@karenjunelawrence-official]

What can I use instead of distrokid

[@Trinison7]

Also I have checked official Spotify editorial playlist and found fictional activities.

[@Mxneyside_milly]

Thanks for the plugs big hommie, also thanks for being motivation for us DIYers 😈👌🏾

[@xfacta334]

Money is always a factor but at the core of this is a stone cold power play. This is apart of the new strategies on how to maintain control of the system aka gatekeep. "If you want to get in this game, you will play on our turf and by our rules" - Them. The old ways are slowly becoming less effective so they lowered the glass ceiling down a bit to create new demand at a faster rate. "There's a war going on outside that no man is safe from" - Havoc.....

[@GoldenStarIncTV]

Much appreciated Curtis 😮 NGL Spotify been moving funny since Corona

[@six7264]

I genuinely think that Spotify's obsession with keeping labels happy for those equity positions have made it such that they've made an inferior product. They really had something maybe 6-8 years ago, but they have an active disdain for their consumers and the artists on their platform because they don't add to their falsified numbers. They just let go of their work force for the same reasons. People knock Jay-Z, but Tidal still empowers artists better than Spotify at this point.

[@TheRealMacheteMyke]

Yea I think it's time I pull my music off distrokid as well, it's crazy because I used that "Wheel of Playlist " feature for almost all my singles and afterwards song I would get regular plays on just stop being counted EVEN THO I still have friends and family that play my music regularly! 😂😂😂

[@Ne-manic]

Bless up yuh self genna, keep blessing us with info

[@whiteshadowbw9335]

And this is why I only upload to KZbin, Audiomack and SoundCloud 😐 All my small fans are down to ride no matter what but seeing how the music business is spiraling down is looking bleak

[@AlexMartinsBrazil]

soundcloud is straight, better then spotify fr

[@rcameron4091]

Great points . Recently left Distrokid and all streaming because of a dispute that they were unwilling to address . Goodbye Distrokid and the gang . Don't need ya won't feed ya

[@jacobwilliams676]

Thanks for the distribution info

[@content_fan]

My friend had half of his music catalog removed from Spotify after Distrikid did the exact same thing mentioned on this video. A “pop up” saying streams were 100% artificial

[@geek_marketing2020]

13:30 Hey! thanks for sharing my article! It comes down to this Distrokid just doesn't want to pay $10 per song. so they take down the songs even if they got some fake streams, they may even do these themselves to keep royalties???

[@RealDigitalDynasty]

Can we talk about the fact that when u contact Spotify and ask them about their 3 strike rule they tell you they don’t have one and they don’t charge DSP for artificial streaming 🤔

[@novarobotslofi6596]

I just recently received a strike notification on DK cuz of the Spotify bot thing. I don’t pay for bots. So i did some research & decided to sign up with Symphonic for my newest release. Of all of the distros i was looking at they seemed kinda ok🤷🏼‍♂️ BUT, I had an issue with logging in & had to create a support ticket, literally the next morning i had an email from them saying they manually reviewed it & fixed the issue. So i’ll see how it goes but i was impressed how quickly Symphonic replied & liked that someone there looked at my problem. Don’t think i’ll ever go back to DK after all this shady business..

[@AlexMartinsBrazil]

An alternative to maintaining this percentage of 89% is for views to be generated in different time frames, for example today you earned 1k, tomorrow 2k, the day after tomorrow, 1k again, so the algorithm doesn't know how to decipher

[@VarietySportsTalk]

omg, now im at the wheel of playlist segment of this video...ive played this game day after for so many days only to get a notification that my song got replaced/bumped off the list...it happened all the time that my song placement got bumped off the playlist...i have given up on that.

[@ThePowerScript]

Thank You Brother, for helping us independent artists.

[@karasmusic]

At 21:20, I absolutely agree - and they can never provide evidence of their claims against you. And def not just distro kid…this stuff has happened to me too via diff dsp

[@BehindThatSuit]

Bro.... that Wavr thing added a song to a playlist of mine like this week.

[@Xxxxxxxsx]

Who remembers datpiff

[@TrioWavVevo]

Great vid, thank you

[@Xxxxxxxsx]

19:30

[@JAPANESEJENN]

What ????? Everytime I promote a song Distrokid says that Spotify detected bots !!! Very interesting 🤔

[@djyellaUN]

I also want to add that banning and charging folks for botted songs is WILD because you can bot ANYONES song. Anyone can do it. All you need is the track link. That's all you need. Go to the artist page and click the song you want to bot and copy the URL. It's as simple as that. The cheapest services that won't get you paid but will make your numbers look good only cost about .20 cents for 1000 streams.

[@actualwakandangirl7121]

“Your song is uploaded, it’s being distributed, your artwork has been approved, YOUR TOES ARE CURLING!” 🤣

[@13FingazCrew]

#POWERUP #Facts 24:32

[@FNSMusicGroup]

Sonny aint never lied...💯

[@T1C3]

It's krazy because I was on a couple of Spotify viral playlist, but then all of sudden those just disappeared like I was never on them... Yea Something fishy going on over there fa SHO

[@RealDigitalDynasty]

Distrokid and Spotify are in it together, to have peoples song removed from their platform so they don’t have to pay them. Now with their new “3 strike policy” that Spotify is saying isn’t them as well.

[@Floydai]

In most industries. They will take the easiest route. “Cost effective” I work for a large shipbuilding company . We build ships for the us navy, as well as foreign militaries. We are actually a foreign company on US soil. This is the approach they take to build ships to protect our country…So I can only imagine how the music industry operates.

[@gdz2905]

So, which music distribuitor do you recommend??? i do have my own isrc prefix to register my own isrc.

[@davidstar2362]

Detroit Techno 1-5 Mix vol 1 Zodicus Prime717 Single $0.37 2,869 Detroit (Techno-6-10-mix-vol-1) Zodicus Prime717 Single $0.20 15,443 Detroit Techno 17-20 vol.1 Zodicus Prime717 Single $0.13 3,971 Detroit Dubstep 1-6 vol 2 Zodicus Prime717 Single $0.11 2,979 13 19 Drum and bass vol 2 Zodicus Prime717 Single $0.10 71 7 (12 Drum and bass vol 2) Zodicus Prime717 Single $0.09 4,173 TOTAL $0.99 29,506 I made .99 cents for 29 thousand plays on distrokid

[@nvisionbeats]

Very very interesting i’m loving this independent movement right now keep shining a light Curtis 💯

[@Eddie_sto]

I just said this on FB. I knew something was up!!!!!😮

[@AlexMartinsBrazil]

thank god i don't use distromid

[@AmritBasra]

@@AlexMartinsBrazil what is best you think?

[@RelentlessForever999]

Ngl when I first started making music I was paying out for promo 😂 but not one of my songs were taken down wtf!?!?

[@DiLoFlow]

Also note I have been seeing distrokid ads on the side of this video and in the video I blocked the ad and still see the ad that is scary But its real tho I wish they would stop spamming me there ads.

[@Trinison7]

The theory about Spotify I believe as well but not just Spotify all social media platforms Instagram Tik Tok Twitter Amazon music iTunes all of them do this to attract investors.

[@Trinison7]

For those people who never got their own UPC codes or isrc kind of deserve it. They are not expensive at all to obtain.

[@doriangibbs]

nobody deserves to be treated badly.

[@Trinison7]

@@doriangibbs not saying they deserve to be treated badly but if you are not on top of your business that's half of the game and it's your fault

[@djyellaUN]

It's interesting that all backend Spotify streaming service providers recently purged the majority of their services. Services that catered to record labels and services that catered to smaller indie artists. All gone just recently. These services actually got you paid. Spotify has to be in on the game.

[@-vertex-2506]

Ironically the midroll ad I got was a DistroKid ad😂

[@djyellaUN]

Imagine the opps paying .20 cents per 1000 streams to get you booted from Spotify. That's crazy.

[@ChadFocus]

Big facts

[@Karhyme7]

I dissed distrokid yrs ago because they dont support Hip Hop artist collections on youtube

[@FRANKRICECOLD209]

Distrokid was terrible for Me they kept flagging my stuff and then going back and forth Over and Over emailing and not getting a solutions it was to time consuming and frustrating for me it was a waist of money and time for me

[@kuttywest]

What did you up end using instead??

[@FRANKRICECOLD209]

@@kuttywest Beatstars

[@ala-diamuplife4life]

bro Destrokid owe u big time because a lot of people join them because of the KZbin Video you did years ago including me

[@VarietySportsTalk]

today march 7, 2024, i got a msg from distrokod saying one of me 25 songs have been removed due to artificial streams...how is it possible when i have never asked or paid anyone for anything? and why just that one song out of 25? that one song that spotify removed was my most streamed song. this is scary stuff knowing that any of my songs can be zapped for aftificial streams that i have no clue is happening behind my back...what am i to do? the only promoting i do is share my song links in facaebook groups and people in my friends list, thats all the promoting that im doing

[@the_izB]

And they stole my last payment ...$6! FR!

[@ghfjfghjasdfasdf]

Nonstop facts… preach 👍

[@skizzyskitzo]

Yoooooo what have we done!!!

[@Bangastarch]

Here I am intentionally pushing my music … these bots everywhere

[@7thNoteOfficial]

KZbin music is the way to go

[@ClarenceJrRoss]

damn.. you got me thinking hard now. (this episode cuts deep)

[@sonniebabble941]

RELATIONSHIP OVER STREAMS ☀️9️⃣0️⃣9️⃣

[@CurtissKingTV]

Always!

[@djyellaUN]

Even Audiomacks internal paid promotion on their own website functions just like the bot providers which was very interesting and concerning to me. Because they messed up and spent the entire budget in one go...600 streams in one instant basically and then the day after their play tracker stops tracking properly...tracking no streams at all, which was the same behavior as the bot providers. Again...very concerning.

[@Eddie_sto]

How many of these music sites do we really need?

[@Xxxxxxxsx]

I felt like SoundCloud was enough

[@DiLoFlow]

I am glad I did not stay with them to long.

[@tdpposidendagod1885]

Spotify took down one of my homies albums saying one of the songs had suspicious activity. He didn't pay for playlist. And how you take a whole album off cause one song has a little over 2k spins in a 6 month span.

[@Truefaiththemessenger]

Hey Bro. curtis i would like some advice on How to set up to Go Direct to Consumer I am Done With Spotify Any Info That Would Set Me Up To Connect Directly With Fans Thanks

[@Treyco]

I always knew this about Spotify

[@BrianLarney]

I've been thinking about this for a very long time and I agree with you about Spotify's majority of streams being BOTs. There's no way that there are multiple millions of people interested in so-called curators (other listeners) favorite songs compiled into a playlist, there's no way that there are multiple millions of people interested in Spotify's editorial staff's favorite picks on a playlist and finally, there's no way no-name indie aritists are getting multiple millions of legitimate streams on Spotify. I'm conivinced that the whole thing is fake. Way faker than the days of radio Payola.

[@blakdavisboy]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@WeAreRGM]

Who knows what’s gonna happen, but something has got to change.

[@NRVE8]

Distrokid hands down has the WORST customer service of any company I’ve ever worked with…

[@FNSMusicGroup]

Man...this is getting deep, is it me cuz this is sounding conspiracy deep... 🤔

[@egomenar]

Hi Curtiss, what's your strategy for when every artist or creator decides to go direct to consumer and the increased stress of having to subscribe or buy from multiple artistes.

[@CurtissKingTV]

There existed a time 20 years ago when this was every day life for music fans. You bought music from whom you wanted to support. The only difference is that now we will have a buying option for consumers to subscribe to their FAVORITE artist’s audio/visual experience. It’s not a “stress” it’s an option and a change necessary for great music to become profitable again.

[@StevieBoyesmusic]

Also, I wonder what advertisers on the platform would think if they knew how much of their ad money is being spent on bots! Has spotify tolerated bot because it makes there platform look more popular.

[@thegrandstandjockeys2737]

Wheel of playlist both got music our music botted and our song got removed

[@herkingdomUnorthodox]

Its horrible wen ppl act funny towards u but once they start to play with ur money, str8 bullsh!!!. Spot & dk scamming, this is y u cant eva get a straight answer from either one. All the platforms play dirty and Indie artist suffer. That wheel tho😑😑 got a lot of people caught up in it. Thx 4 the info! 📶

[@ITSJFE]

As a music lover...this just makes me wish we kept things honest and went back to selling actually copies of music....not this digital crap

[@yvancarbuccia6596]

Damn the mamba mentality poster there… this guy is a goat

[@TheLitOutlet]

🔥🔌

[@SavantMade]

You know that a lawsuit, if Spotify deliberately targeting artist, because they have a disagreement with your platform🤷🏽🤷🏽🤷🏽

[@Prodby.1takeonthetrack]

I had a song taken down from Spotify yesterday random glad I only had 544views n not 30,000

[@carbonvibes]

Thanks for sharing @Curtiss King 🫡

[@TommyTenderoni]

Drake in a tank top on Gospel is nasty work 🤣🤣🤣

[@killervirusrecords]

Bro I’m in the music industry manage a multi platinum producer! This is an all attacks on small labels and artist because they are losing market share every 5 years just think just 10+ years ago the indies only had 3-5% of the market now we are at 35% so they are attacking small company’s!

[@ChadFocus]

True story

[@heythere6983]

I might have missed it but if you generate your own codes, will the distribution companies make it hard for you since they want to own the code ?

[@angelicagrady9270]

Omg! I've put my song in that wheel of playlist at least 3 times! Is there a way to undo that?!

[@fretnoize]

Tunecore took down Benn Jordan's entire catalog... he was able to get it restored, but crazy stuff

[@raymercifa8562]

You talked about the bots but what about the fake playlist? Why can Spotify block me from uploading new music cause I don’t wanna take their stupid test. That’s copyright infringement! We need a lawsuit going on. If you hear about one let me know. I bought promo one time. I received that message 3 times but I refuse to do the embarrassment. What should I do

[@likwidguns]

I get the feeling that there all going under. UNITED MASTERS takes our music down if you don't renew the subscription. They used to be free. The losing money. If you have good music build a following and go straight to consumer. That's the future

[@Fullmetaltracer]

So when corporations fake streams it’s fine 😂😂😂

[@troydaboymusic]

I thought I was the only one that kind of figured distrokid playlists are botted