Note: I hope this post doesn't come across as too angry or bitter, because I'm really not, and that isn't my intention here. I just wanted to get the facts out there for anyone who was curious, as well as for my own catharsis. Stern words nevertheless make me uncomfortable; guess who isn't a very confrontational person?
Some of you may have noticed that my recent album, Cosmic Considerations, has been removed from Spotify. Why would that be? Well, allow me to pull back the curtain on some of the malicious deeds that go on behind the scenes in today's music industry.
Over the past few years, there have been an increasing number of botted playlists on Spotify, each containing thousands of (usually) nonconsenting musicians. These playlist creators will continuously cycle through different music in the hopes of baiting any artists who notice the spike in "listeners," somehow believe the streams to be genuine, and want to be featured again after paying. Why anyone would fall for this fake promotion is beyond me, but I guess it happens. Or maybe some don't care either way and just want higher numbers.
So I was targeted by one of these grifters back in January. I was ready to ignore them, like I do all promoters, but then I began reading further into this issue. It apparently has been happening more and more, and merely landing on one of these playlists can result in your music being taken down, even when you never asked or agreed to be added in the first place.
Uh oh.
I immediately contacted my distributor (CDBaby, whom I have been with since 2008), as well as Spotify. I notified both of them about the situation, and even used Spotify's playlist reporter tool, which -- from what I can tell -- was created explicitly for this circumstance. Spotify's chat support said don't worry. CDBaby ignored my email.
A few months had passed, and then I got hit again in April. Same "promoter" but using a slightly different business alias and website. I used the report tool once more, and sent CDBaby another email letting them know. No response this time either.
Fast forward to June, I received a message from CDBaby saying they are taking down the album due to artificial streams.
Despite my initiative (catching and reporting the playlists within a day), it didn't actually make a difference. Spotify still flagged the album, sent a notice to CDBaby, and possibly fined them. CDBaby's response was the album's removal, threats of passing along the fines to me, and a warning that this could result in my discography being pulled (and, based on some testimonies I've read, my account being closed entirely). Woof.
There's no recourse to be had. No appeal process. All of these major distributors are performing the same takedowns, and since they are skeleton crews relying on automation and AI, they're basically unreachable. Meanwhile, Spotify has no motivation to tackle the issue considering they get additional funding from the fines, and get to purge their servers of smaller artists (whom they often no longer pay anyway due to a new minimum-annual-streams requirement).
To have the album back up, I'd need to go through the submission process again and repay the non-refundable fees; however, there'd be no guarantee that this problem wouldn't just reoccur. Alternatively, there are distributors who charge a recurring fee to keep your music online and provide unlimited uploads (instead of the pay-once model), so anyone caught in this predicament could be incentivized to switch services. As someone who releases occasional albums rather than frequent singles, though, this isn't really an option because such subscription fees over time would far exceed what I earn. (And sure enough, Spotify is also a stake holder in one of these subscription-based distributors. Hmm.)
Now that I'm on the radar of these fake promoters, it is likely only a matter of time before they systematically go through my catalogue and get everything pulled. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that some of them even use it as a means of extortion, threatening artists with playlist placement. Even to the lucky ones who don't get delisted, the algorithm for their target audience would become incredibly convoluted, decreasing the chances of reaching potential fans.
As for what's next? Beats me. I'm not too bothered, other than the injustice of it all. I hear murmurs of class action lawsuits, so we'll see what happens. I'm just a small fish in this ocean, and there are much bigger names being affected, so I wish them luck. But to be honest, 5-10 years from now, I doubt Spotify will even exist in its current form. What's stopping all the giant labels like Sony Music from starting their own streaming services, similar to what all the TV networks have been doing in response to Netflix? And don't forget that technology marches on, with more AI generated music populating playlists every day; a tidal wave of content (across all media) is coming ashore, so ultimately, none of this really matters.
It goes without saying that my next release will be on Bandcamp and YouTube only. There's a certain classic retro-futuristic sci-fi post-apocalyptic video game series that is deserving of a concept EP. Perhaps the blending of desert rock, dry/low-reverb 70's prog, and jazz orchestra would be fitting. Kyuss, Rush, and Sinatra? I'll see what I can do.
