[Playlists] Solution to false/abusive reporting

[CloudlightRec]

Whenever someone reports a playlist - the title and cover art are removed immediately. This is often abused to hurt record labels and playlist curators. After contacting support - the account of someone who abused this system gets taken down. This person then creates another email and free Spotify account and repeats the process. 

There is a simple solution to the problem - enable reporting feature only after 10 hours of music/podcasts were streamed using the account. It won't change the experience for a normal user but makes copyright abuse impractical. It's cheap and easy to implement and would stop 95% of false claims.

Thank you for your consideration. 

[Petya]

Updated on 2020-04-14

Hi @CloudlightRec,

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We're marking this as a new idea that users can add their votes to. 

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[Hippieninjaz]

When under artist, doesnt list compilations anymore.  This blows 

[Hippieninjaz]

Why

[Lestaticon]

This should be something already explored. Logically speaking, Spotify should be able to compile a list of all playlist abuse reports. For each report record (assuming using a database, so I mean record in terms of a record in a DB), boil down data to determine if said report can be considered "false" or "true." Under each "false" flagged report, compile list of accounts responsible for submitting said report. Analyze statuses of those accounts to determine a pattern (ie. brand new accounts, unverified accounts, no listening history or very low at time of report, no listening history after reporting, etc). Use info to create policies. Additional logic: Always throw out data regarding bio info of accounts (age, etc) since that info cannot be verified. When tables built, create queries to find accounts with multiple "false" reports. Look for dates/times of each. 

I think it would just take someone a little time to explore that; a day maybe, but depends on how many records are extracted and how long it takes to process any queries. 

My "2 cents" anyway!

[user-removed]

"This is often abused to hurt record labels and playlist curators."

I've never heard of this problem. Why would someone want to "hurt" playlist curators, as you claim?

[CodyBloomfield]

I don't claim, I know for a fact. One of the playlists we have is being consistently reported 3 times a day for a past month. Reporting is clearly automated cuz it's done at the same time each day. Our playlist does not violate any guidelines and has a custom design.

The reasons are:

1. People see it as a way to promote their playlist in the search section. This is, of course, nonsense but it doesn't stop abusers from continuing.

2. It's used as a way to bully someone into selling their playlist to competing label. 

3. It is used to lower the revenue of artists signed with a label. So the artists will switch to working with competitor.

All of this is totally against Spotify's terms of service but noone does anything because the issue doesn't get enough attention.

Whenever we contact the support - they report blocking abuser's account. But of course it is super easy to create a new acc and the cycle goes on. 

[user-removed]

I think we're looking at the problem from the wrong side. It would seems to me that a reporting tool is the right answer to protect my intellectual property in a massively commercial system. It's one thing to complain about a dirty trick. It's another to have the hard work of actual artists stolen by playlist jockeys. Imagine that you're a prominent artist and you're getting buried in a mountain of fake playlists using your likeness to promote other music. Sure, you as the artist can file a complaint, and then Spotify can look at the complaint and get back to you in a few days. Meanwhile, listeners who enjoy your work are duped into being redirected, much to your embarrassment.

I guess the right answer for playlist curators is to work hard to protect your work against these attacks you claim are happening. But don't kneecap artists' abilities to protect themselves in the same arena.

[CloudlightRec]

It has nothing to do with artists. What are you even talking about? Do you know what a playlist is? 

[CloudlightRec]

Seems like you just want to insult me without even understanding what I'm talking about. 

[CloudlightRec]

Artists can also be the target of false reporting. Artists create playlists to promote their music. Those playlists are then reported. I am an artist running a label. My playlists don't violate any copyright and don't use anyone's identity. I am suffering from false reports because the reporting tool is being abused.