Spotify removed our release for bot streams, even after i reported it and was told they cant help!

[ImNewman]

Hey there, 

I am in a band called CØVES and today we received the gutting email that we have had a release taken down from Spotify for suspicion of artificial streams.
We have never paid for any music promotion service which is why when i noticed a spike in streams I flagged it Spotify via Spotify for artists in October last year. I asked if the track can be removed from the playlist, but I was told there’s nothing we can do. (Please see images attached).

Spotify for artists have been incredibly unhelpful, taking no accountability and suggesting i speak to Distrokid to resolve the matter. When speaking to Distrokid, the response i get is:

“It has nothing to do with Distrokid. We are just passing along the information provided to us by Spotify and we haven't been given any additional information from Spotify other than what has already been provided.”

We feel incredibly hard done by in this situation, as we were aware of the artificial streams and went through the necessary channels to report it. Only to be told theres nothing can be done and now we pay the price. To make matters worse, neither Spotify or Distrokid are taking any accountability and sending us the other way for help.

What can we do in this situation? It seems like small artists like us are paying the price for these bot streams. Spotify should be targeting the botters, rather than taking down our music. This was our first release and our most popular track, we had put a lot of time and money into organic social ads to push the track, and now we feel heartbroken that we might have to start again from 0.

Please any advice here would be much appreciated.

[Lrtalbot]

Exact same thing has happened with myself. Please could we get any kind of explanation Spotify, this is so unfair for musicians working hard to get their music heard! 

[ImNewman]

Its unacceptable that we pay the price, rather than the botters being suspended, truly upsetting. 
Shocking/non-existent customer support as well

[KobeBanks]

This happened to me too. My artist name is Kobe Banks and I got flagged 4 days ago for 1 track and then last night Spotify took down my entire album. I've been in college too so the only way I could promote was through THEIR marquee and I did it for $100/release. It's really wild how there is no artist protection and how people adding your tracks to their fake playlists falls back on you, who is worried about making the music, not worried about looking at where what playlists the statistics are coming from each hour of the day just to save YOUR own release from THEIR platform. Before this happened I was pumping out music for my catalog because I really wanted to grow fast, and I was.. After getting off of their unhelpful support this morning though, I'm feeling disheartened by the situation as a whole, and not as motivated as I was.

[deejaywells82]

Same. Some of us, its our first time uploading music and my music "Deejay Wells: Breakout" was removed and I had to reupload my album because of a bot.

[ultrapoci]

Distrokid recently banned my band's songs due to "fake streams", which is clearly not the case becase we didn't use any such services. I'm also reading that loads of other people is in a similar situation. I'm waiting for a response from Distrokid but in any case, I'm done with it. 
What happens if a start using another distributor and I upload the same songs on my artists page (which I think it's no banned, only the songs are...?)? Is this illegal or against the rules? I'm not trying to circumvent any ban, I just want to stop using Distrokid and start with another distributor, I just fear that the ban of my songs carries over. I found zero help online. I'm asking here because I'm confused to the relationship between Spotify and Distrokid. I don't care about my Distrokid account, I just want to have my music back on Spotify and I want to be sure not to do anything wrong on the Spotify side of things.

[Franoc]

I'm in the same exact situation...
Back in November, one of my songs was added, without my consent, to a weird playlist on Spotify. I noticed it and contacted Spotify straight away.
They told me they would investigate the playlist and inform me of anything. (they didn't)

I also have screenshots of this conversation.

Yesterday, I got an email from Tunecore (my distributor) that's basically taking down my entire EP (not just that one song) because of Spotify complaint (they clearly state that this comes from Spotify)
My EP has also been removed from all the other streaming platforms, and I'm not allowed to re-upload it to Tunecore.

I've contacted Spotify again, but they've been pretty rude about it, not giving me any option, even though I've got the screenshots of the original conversation to prove that this was done without my consent.

I'm now in a position where I could change distributor to get my songs back online, but I'd risk being added to another bot playlist in the future, and having to do that all over again, or just give up...

This seems so common for small independent artists, that I think the best option is to NOT publish your songs onto Spotify until they fix this issue.
Spotify is facing a big problem with these bot farms, but is choosing to punish artists instead of closing these playlists. 

This is such a massive issue. There's nothing we can do on our end. We can't remove songs from playlists and contacting Spotify support is useless.
On top of that, anyone can just add one of your song to one of these playlists randomly, and you'd be at risk loosing your entire release.

[CrystolbolRecords]

Crystolbol Records will be filing a class action law suit against Distroy Kids and Spotify for removing songs without legitimate basis. We have had a song removed with claims of fake bot when we did not and will never use bots. This is a problem because we spent thousands of dollars to release the song and have a music video coming up soon. This is embarrassing to our company, and the artist.

Feel free to contact us if you wish to join the class action lawsuit @:

Yomi Dairo

**bleep**

www.CrystolbolRecords.com 

[Jamie1233]

Same thing happened to me with my new release let her go

spotify accused me of having fake streams even though I have not paid a penny to any service for streams.   My song had streams all over the world as well as over a thousand listeners.   I was on multiple play list as well.    
I am so angry and do not know where to turn.     Grrrrr

[Akahum]

I've had the same issue with Distrokid / Spotify. I've never used any promotional service, my play counts are not high, but my songs are being removed. I feel this issue has probably arisen following an update to the algorithm using A.I. I've had no proof presented to me that I've used such a 'bot' service, the tracks being removed have been available for 10 years or more with less than 1k of plays. Easy maths. No bots.

David Akahum.

[NotD]

I’ve had the exact same experience…. I saw an increase in streams but assumed it was just an increase in listeners… not AI.. 

like you I’ve NEVER PAID FOR or ENGAGED with ANY 3rd party! I have too many screenshots for this?!

Yes they should target the Botters/Services that exploit…..

Extremeky frusted!

[NotD]

It’s dreadful isn’t it?! Shame on them!

[pianotpot]

Hi! to Everyone on this thread - there is a new idea 'a way for artists to remove their songs from a specific playlist' that they suspect of being botted. https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/quot-Remove-From-Playlist-Button-quot-for-Artists/idi-p/... Please go and show it some love

[AshTagg]

Spotify are against bot streams.. yet they are using bots to respond to our issues.... Why do they keep repeating same responses. Is this not stupid? 

[nigelnisbet]

**bleep** I'm so happy to hear we're not the only ones!!!!! This happened to us earlier this year, band name Electrasy, our album "To The Other Side" was pulled from Spotify for this exact reason. Again, (as I mentioned on repeated occasions to Spotify / CD Baby / Anyone else who cared to listen) WE NEVER PAID FOR ANY FAKE BOT STREAMS!!!  I don't know what the heck is going on but I got the exact same runaround as you. Spotify said "it's not us talk to CD Baby" and CD Baby said "talk to Spotify" and no one EVER even **bleep** enough to actually look at any data etc etc etc. I'm not going to post all my screenshots here, but they look remarkably similar.

I figured we couldn't be the only ones this is happening to, but something very weird is going on, and either, they really don't care (very likely because while we have 20,000+ monthly listeners much like yourself, it's hardly enough to make them care about what we do). Just infuriating. But they've won. They made the entire system so perfectly bureaucratically awful that the sheer weight of it feels almost impossible to fight against.

We made more from sales of Vinyl during last year;s tour than we have made from Spotify streaming in over ten years. What a waste of time.

[LilTimmyOfficial]

I've dealt with the same problem. At this point im highly considering suing Spotify or my distributor because this is insane.

[Paperlightning]

Exact same thing happened to me. I had my music added to a bot playlist without my consent. So outrageous and unfair that the artist is punished for this! And for Distrokid and Spotify to simply point at each other without doing anything to help the artist is appalling. 

[smilinJakk201]

I just came  to chime-in with my situation as well. I got hit with a warning on my latest release, an 3-song EP released on November 29.

However the situation is a bit different from others I am reading about. In my case, none of the songs were placed in a Public Playlist, and the Source of Streams graph under every song, shows that 2/3 of the streams come from library saves and people's private playlists. Under the Music>Playlists section, nothing comes up,. because it is not on any public list.

Then I checked with an online bot-checking tool that Distrokid suggested. Guess what. It shows 0 bot playlist adds! And when I email Distrokid I get the same formulaic, bot-like replies. I attached pictures of all the stats, pictures from the bot-checking tool showing 0 bot playlist adds! And yet, in all those bot-like responses from DK, they keep claiming "spotify confirmed it" and "please report the playlists and re-upload your music", and it's clear as day that they don't even read my replies in full, or that they completely disregard them to avoid doing anything.

I suspect there is much more to this, as there have been claims about "Playlister", a service that DK offers for "legitimate" playlist placing, saying that they're full of bot lists, and also because of the new regulations, if you get 3 strikes you have to pay a fine of 10$ to "clear" the songs with strikes, and whatnot.

I also read that they flag songs that are being played too much from the same IP's. So, if someone saved my song and they play it too much, and Spotify deems it to be unacceptable, they can flag it. Similarly, if I play my own songs on the platform more than they like, they can flag them as well?

This is preposterous and unacceptable, and it is clear as day that it is targeting small independent artists who might be getting more streams than usual! This also goes in-hand with their recent regulations about royalty payouts, and that no songs under 1000 streams (within the same calendar year) are eligible for royalties. So, this means that if they keep down the number of songs getting more than 1000 plays (which will also result in the artist gaining natural traction and therefore more possibility to keep gaining streams, followers and traction), then that means that they will have less songs eligible for royalties, and so more revenue! This is complete BS, and I am beyond frustrated!