[All Platforms][Playlists] How can I stop my song being botted?

[JustinTime84]

Dear fellow musicians,

first of all, sorry if this is not the appropriate place to post this, but it was a bit tricky to find my way around as a new member here.

My issue:

I have recently released my first song on Spotify. I manually sent it to some playlist curators and much to my delight a few of them even added my song to their playlists, it brought barely any streams but it was fun and I was happy about every stream.

Some days ago I then stumbled upon a service offered by a so called „music & media expert“ who offered to do that tough work and pitch songs to many playlist curators. He clearly stressed working absolutely organically and in full alignment with all spotify regulations. I thus booked his service... and trouble began 😞

A few hours later I realized that (slowly increasing) I got constant streams on my song. Whereas I had had around 15 – 30 streams A DAY at best, I suddenly had 5 – 10 people listening at once ALL the time, peaking at 26 listeners at once. I was celebrating and thought my song was going viral until one day later the stats were updated and I saw that I had gained 1k streams overnight, almost all of them coming from only a handful of cities in the US which- after some research – turned out to be typical locations of bot-networks. One day later the streams ended abruptly, confirming my suspicion that I am being botted.

I wrote two emails to spotify for artists to ask for help and on how to stop this but only got answers that appeared to be standard phrases that didn't help me.

Since yesterday the same thing has started again and is ongoing until the moment I write these lines.

To be clear: I DON'T WANT THIS. Not only do I fear consequences for my spotify account and myself, also does it completely ruin the fun and the passion for the music and watching my song on spotify. Right now my only solution is: Delete my song from spotify in order to prevent harm / consequences.

Does anyone here have an idea how I can...

… find proof of whether I am really being botted or whether the streams might be legit in the end?

… end this without deleting my song and thus sacrificing the love and work I put into it?

Needless to say: Had I done my „homework“ before I should have known better than work with such people. 😞

Thank you very much & All the best

[JackReynolds05]

First of all, 

You're an awesome typer! It was very clear to understand.

And second of all, 

I'm sorry that you had to be the victim of all of it.

Down below, you'll find what I suggest you do, if not already haven't, to stop botting. 

Have you...

... contacted the service "Music & Media Expert" and ask to discontinue it?

... called Spotify — not email — and explain to them your problem? 

That's all I can think of right now, but if you have any other questions, please let me know, or someone else! Hope this helps!

--

Jack Reynolds

Music Fan

[JustinTime84]

Hey Jack,

Happy to read your kind words.

1.) yes, I have contacted the guy and of course he claimed to be absolutely "innocent". The more I investigate, the more it seems this "expert" simply pitched my song to MANY non-legit third parties of which at least one has used bot streams

2.) I have searched in depth but never managed to find a phone connection to spotify. 😞

Just imagine if I have success with a future release and people will look into my history. They will (understandably) see my stats and will think that I'm a cheat.

I now habe around 4 k streams in total and the "stream flood" has stoppef for now. I am not sure whether these 4k streams are "peanuts" or whether I should simply pull the plug and take my song off completely. 

Again many thanks!

[JackReynolds05]

Well, that's just rubbish. 

I have another suggestion and that is...

... to contact your distributor and ask for assistance. I don't know if you personally can do anything about it, but maybe if your distributor can help, that might help your problem.

Another one is to delete your song, and re-release it and start over? I know that's a huge step, but I, personally, think it's a good idea. Of course, it's your music, so you do whatever you want to. But, here are my two-cents worth!! 

[JackReynolds05]

Also, I saw your images and yes, I think it's suspicious that the "Source of Streams" are 90% other. AND, that the gender(s) is "Not Specified."

[Xain17]

Did you ever find a solution to your issue? If so what was it? I ask because I am currently going through the same exact thing