Fake Streams: How to Spot Artificial Streaming and Protect Your Releases
- 16 nov 2026
- 20 visualizaciones
Artificial streaming means plays that do not come from real people choosing to listen: bots, click farms, looped devices and fake playlists. Streaming services remove these plays and act against the releases involved. Even artists who never bought streams can be affected by a "promotion" service that used them.
What it can cost you
- Removed streams and withheld royalties for the affected tracks.
- Fees. Spotify charges labels and distributors per track when flagrant artificial streaming is detected, and distributors may pass these costs on.
- Takedowns of the affected releases, and in serious cases the account.
- Bad data. Bot plays fill your statistics with fake listeners, so algorithmic playlists recommend your music to the wrong audience or not at all.
Warning signs in your statistics
- A sudden jump in streams with almost no saves or follows.
- Most streams from one playlist you do not recognise.
- Listeners concentrated in a city or country with no connection to your audience or promotion.
- Very high streams per listener, for example the same listeners playing a song dozens of times a day.
- Streams that stop completely when a "campaign" ends.
How to vet a promotion service
Walk away if a service:
- guarantees a number of streams, followers or playlist placements;
- sells packages priced per thousand streams;
- will not tell you which playlists or channels it uses;
- promises results "safe from detection".
Legitimate promotion sells your time with real audiences: ads you control, curators who may say no, press and radio campaigns with reports you can check. See how to find genuine independent playlists.
If you see suspicious streams
- Do not wait for the next royalty report. Contact your distributor's support with the track, the dates and the playlist link if you know it.
- Ask the playlist owner to remove your song if it was added without your request.
- Stop any promotion service that may be involved and keep the receipts and messages.
The 1,000-stream threshold
Spotify also requires a track to reach at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months before it earns recording royalties. Streams that are removed as artificial do not count towards it.
What actually works
Real growth comes from consistent releases, content that makes people curious and listeners who save and return. It is slower, but every listener you gain stays useful for your next release. Read how Spotify's algorithmic playlists work for the signals that matter.
SpaceMedia's anti-fraud policy explains how we handle artificial streaming. Release your music with SpaceMedia and grow it with real listeners.
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Elige entre varias opciones de membresía para encontrar la que mejor se alinee con tus necesidades de distribución musical.
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Una vez que tu música se distribuya y gane tracción, garantizamos una compensación oportuna por tu trabajo creativo.
SpaceMedia entrega música a una red amplia y cambiante de plataformas de streaming, descarga, redes sociales y plataformas de identificación de música. Esto puede incluir servicios principales como Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, TikTok, Facebook y Instagram, SoundCloud, Tidal, Pandora, Boomplay, Anghami, iHeart, JioSaavn, KKBOX, NetEase Cloud Music, Tencent, Qobuz y otros socios compatibles.
El canal exacto puede cambiar a medida que las plataformas actualicen territorios, reglas y requisitos de entrega. SpaceMedia te da acceso a canales de distribución compatibles, pero ningún distribuidor puede garantizar que todas las plataformas acepten cada lanzamiento en todos los países.
Most major streaming services do not let every artist upload music directly. A distributor like SpaceMedia delivers your audio, artwork, metadata, and rights information to supported platforms so your release can appear on services such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, TikTok, and others.
Create an account, choose the plan that fits your needs, upload the final release files, review the details, and submit. SpaceMedia reviews Free submissions within 5 business days, Premium submissions within 2 business days, and Label submissions within 1 to 2 business days. Store publishing happens afterwards.
Puedes monetizar música elegible en plataformas de video compatibles mediante Content ID cuando tu plan lo incluye. Content ID está incluido actualmente en Premium y Unlimited, y no está incluido en el plan Free.
Solo envía música que controles completamente para Content ID. Pistas con muestras no autorizadas, beats no exclusivos, bucles libres de regalías usados por muchos creadores, grabaciones de dominio público o derechos disputados pueden ser rechazados o pueden generar reclamaciones que deben resolverse.
Envía tu lanzamiento a través de SpaceMedia y elige la distribución hacia plataformas de música social cuando esté disponible. Lanzamientos elegibles pueden entregarse a plataformas como TikTok, Facebook, Instagram y otros servicios sociales de música compatibles.
Una vez entregado, cada plataforma decide cómo aparece la música, cuánto tiempo toma el procesamiento y qué funciones están disponibles en cada territorio. Usa metadatos precisos y audio limpio para reducir problemas de entrega evitables.
Independent music distribution lets artists release music to streaming, download, and social platforms without signing to a traditional record label. You stay in control of your music while using a distributor to deliver it to supported services.
With SpaceMedia, you can manage releases, artist details, earnings, and payout information from your account. All standard plans let users keep 100% of standard DSP royalties.
The Free plan lets artists release music without an upfront distribution fee and keep 100% of standard DSP royalties.
This gives new artists a way to start releasing music before paying for a yearly plan. Premium and Label add more primary-artist capacity and tools. All standard plans include 100% of standard DSP royalties.
Sí. En muchos casos puedes transferir lanzamientos existentes a SpaceMedia manteniéndolos activos, siempre que envíes los mismos metadatos, audio, arte, UPC y ISRC cuando esté disponible.
Mantén el lanzamiento antiguo activo hasta que la entrega de SpaceMedia esté disponible y coincida correctamente. Eliminar la versión antigua demasiado pronto puede interrumpir la disponibilidad o hacer que las tiendas traten la transferencia como un lanzamiento nuevo en lugar de asignarlo al existente.
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