On November 7th (effective for data on November 6th), Spotify will update their data systems to remove more artificial streams from tracks’ all-time stream counts and artists’ monthly listener counts on the Spotify app.
Spotify already catch and cleanse the majority of artificial streams before they reach public surfaces — and do not pay out on any artificial streams. However a minority of artificial streams are not cleansed before our daily data is published and remain present in public metrics. With this change, these streams will be retroactively removed from monthly listeners and all-time streams counts on a daily basis (note: streams will only be removed starting with November 6th data, not before).
What does this mean for you?
For those that have used any platform or third-party that uses bots or artificial streaming, these numbers will be removed from public side of Spotify. We appreciate that some of you may not be aware of having partaken in this activity. As your distributor we are able to pull artificial reports to confirm this for you should you find a drastic dip in your data.
If Spotify identify streams as artificial, please note that there is nothing we can do as your distributor to bring these back.
This change will have an impact on Spotify for Artists.
Spotify for Artists
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All-time stream counts for releases and tracks will be corrected in S4A daily. However, additional release data will not be scrubbed, meaning that cleansed all-time stream counts will not match other metrics in S4A for those releases that have engaged in artificial streaming.
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Monthly Listeners will not be updated in S4A, meaning this number may differ from the cleansed number in the public-facing Spotify app.
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Spotify understand that some discrepancies in S4A may be confusing, but they have decided it’s better than the status quo today. In the case of significant discrepancies, they’ll add explainer banners to Audience and Release pages to inform S4A users on why these numbers don’t match.
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Why is my monthly listener count different on my artist profile?
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Spotify has detected artificial streams of your music, which have been removed from the public monthly listener count on your artist profile, but not from your private data on this page. If you have questions, including how this may affect your royalty payments learn more about artificial streaming here.
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Why don’t my all-time streams match the rest of my data?
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Spotify has detected artificial streams on this song. These streams have been removed from your all-time stream count above and across Spotify, but not from your private data below. If you have questions, including how this may affect your royalty payments learn more about artificial streaming here.
Spotify believe changes to their charts and public metrics will lead to a significant decrease in artificial streaming. Removing key incentives for bad actors to inflate their streams artificially creates a level playing field, and upholds our user experience for consumers and creators alike.
Avoiding Artificial Streams
We pride ourselves in engaging in organic and effective promotional campaigns for our artists. If you'd like to enquire about working with us on growing your profile and music metrics, please book in a meeting with our A&R team.