SWEDEN (CelebrityAccess)—Streaming fraud is one of the greatest challenges facing today’s music industry. Detailed streaming data can be difficult to access and interpret, so legitimate artists often have no way of knowing if their music is being streamed by bots until it is removed from DSPs. Equipping artists with the resources to fight artificial streams proactively, data-driven artist services company Amuse introduces Stream Check, an industry-first to increase data transparency and identify fraudulent streaming.
“While plenty of bad actors systemize streaming fraud, artificial streaming can also happen to artists who haven’t done anything at all. An artist may cluelessly use a third-party promotion partner who turns out to be a bad choice or legitimate tracks are added to a third-party playlist that utilizes bots without artists knowing, but the artist faces the penalties,” says Amuse Interim Chief Product Officer Erik Söderblom. “Amuse is proud to offer artists a proactive solution that puts them in the driver’s seat with all the tools they need to monitor and protect their catalog and livelihood.”
Stream Check takes a nuanced approach to artificial streaming, educating artists about its consequences. While other distributors have adopted a reactionary strike system or even monetized the possibility of reuploading taken-down music, Amuse offers a proactive alternative: a colorful catalog health bar that indicates what share of an artist’s streams Spotify deemed artificial during the last month.
If an artist’s Stream Check dashboard shows no artificial activity, they don’t need to take any action. On the other hand, a health bar in orange or red territory indicates that streaming fraud is taking place and that the artist is at risk of facing fines or seeing their music removed from DSPs. Luckily, Amuse also provides a knowledge base of proactive actions these artists can take against artificial streams to eliminate these risks and restore their catalog’s health.
“As a particularly data-focused company, Amuse has spent years building an internal system to prevent streaming fraud and collecting monthly Spotify Withheld Streams reports. Thanks to all of this groundwork, we developed the Stream Check feature in a matter of weeks,” explains Louise Frodsham, Director of Customer Operations at Amuse. “We are thrilled to unveil this feature to all artists who distribute their music through Amuse, and we look forward to continuing to educate and surface data that empowers them to fight this industry-wide problem.”
