Fans Are Spoofing Spotify With 'Fake Plays', And That's A Problem For Music Charts (buzzfeednews.com) 102
An anonymous reader shares a report: The Billboard charts have long been the gold standard by which musicians measure their success, but as recent tantrums by the likes of Nicki Minaj have highlighted, the rising influence of streaming services is upending that model -- and giving die-hard fans a way to manipulate the data. A recent release by the Korean pop group BTS prompted its superfandom, millions strong across the globe, to do just that by launching a sophisticated campaign to make sure the boy band reached No. 1.
The strategy employed by the so-called BTS Army went largely like this: Fans in the US created accounts on music streaming services to play BTS's music and distributed the account logins to fans in other countries via Twitter, email, or the instant messaging platform Slack. The recipients then streamed BTS's music continuously, often on multiple devices and sometimes with a virtual private network (VPN), which can fake, or "spoof," locations by rerouting a user's traffic through several different servers across the world. Some fans will even organize donation drives so other fans can pay for premium streaming accounts.
"Superfans of pop acts have long been doing this sort of thing," said Mark Mulligan, managing director of the digital media analysis company MIDIA Research. "But if a superfan has decided to listen nonstop to a track, is that fake? If so, how many times do they have to listen to a track continuously before it is deemed 'fake'?" One BTS fan group claimed it distributed more than 1,000 Spotify logins, all to make it appear as though more people in the US were streaming BTS's music and nudge their album Love Yourself: Tear up the Spotify chart, which in turn factors into Billboard's metrics.
The strategy employed by the so-called BTS Army went largely like this: Fans in the US created accounts on music streaming services to play BTS's music and distributed the account logins to fans in other countries via Twitter, email, or the instant messaging platform Slack. The recipients then streamed BTS's music continuously, often on multiple devices and sometimes with a virtual private network (VPN), which can fake, or "spoof," locations by rerouting a user's traffic through several different servers across the world. Some fans will even organize donation drives so other fans can pay for premium streaming accounts.
"Superfans of pop acts have long been doing this sort of thing," said Mark Mulligan, managing director of the digital media analysis company MIDIA Research. "But if a superfan has decided to listen nonstop to a track, is that fake? If so, how many times do they have to listen to a track continuously before it is deemed 'fake'?" One BTS fan group claimed it distributed more than 1,000 Spotify logins, all to make it appear as though more people in the US were streaming BTS's music and nudge their album Love Yourself: Tear up the Spotify chart, which in turn factors into Billboard's metrics.
Do it like Last.fm (Score:1)
Have the play only count if the track was played all the way (or mostly) through.
Re: c6gunner IMPERSONATING me again? (Score:1)
More lies from you, but that's no surprise. Absolutely nobody impersonated you. Sure, c6gunner parodied your testimonials, but that's not impersonation. As far as I can tell, you actually posted the hosts file spam and claimed that it protects against Spectre and Meltdown.
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Re:Do it like Last.fm (Score:5, Insightful)
...the metric is gameable...
which is the way it has always been, but now the record companies are not the only ones who can game the system.
Re: Do it like Last.fm (Score:4, Insightful)
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The musicians are still irrelevant, as always.
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So the promoters get control back, by paying the streaming services to insert their songs in to unrelated playlists.
That way one unintentional partial play counts as much as a psycho fan listening to the same song on repeat 24x7
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So the promoters get control back, by paying the streaming services to insert their songs in to unrelated playlists.
That way one unintentional partial play counts as much as a psycho fan listening to the same song on repeat 24x7
As long I pay once only for when I request the song and they should only count requested by user if a promotor wants to pay for advertising thats ok too
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Every song you stream on Spotify or any other streaming music service counts towards the royalties that the record label are paid by the service.
nah. doesn't work for this. (Score:1)
it plays through. then it plays again. and again.
it's the artists and record companies who want them to be counted like this. and who's to say they aren't actually listening to it?
the thing that will happen sooner or later is just going to go so that an account can either listen a song for only say 5-10 times in a day or any listens after that don't generate any royalties or chart advancement.
which way it goes depends on artists.
that's a problem with an all you can eat streaming service that pays per plays.
Just count one play per week (Score:3)
Re:Just count one play per week (Score:5, Insightful)
Back in the day the record company made money from physical media sales.
Now they take a cut for every stream.
Success in the industry is how much money you make for your record label.
They may as well cut to the chase and show rank by revenue.
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Success in the industry is how much money you make for your record label.
This is correct, which is why pop music is now dominated by music Simon Cowell likes (or at least music that sounds like music Simon Cowell likes).
Re: Just count one play per week (Score:2)
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Doing the charts by revenue is actually a great idea,
Not for the labels, no. You see:
1. The music industry makes money, you see
2. If you chart by revenue, then the ones at top of the charts clearly are the ones making the most
3. The musicians will know this, and this gives them leverage in negotiations. Which translates to less profit for labels.
So no, there won't be charts by revenue. No way.
Re: Just count one play per week (Score:2)
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With VPN this is one count from this IP, one count from that IP, one count from ...
I think I just accidentally found a new income source for ISPs, too.
Depends on the What The Goal of the List is (Score:2)
The metric can be modified to ignore the impact of superfans if it's the popularity among the general public that matters.
Superfans will buy any album the group will produce, good or bad, so are good for the bottom line. It's sales to the general public that make a song a hit or an also ran.
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What counts as a legit play patttern?
I personally tend to listen to 1 or 2 tracks on repeat for a week while at work.
It's nice to have the same track repeat -- learn the lyrics, better understand the instruments, and it makes for a nice metronome to gauge how well I'm working.
Re: Depends on the What The Goal of the List is (Score:3, Interesting)
Youxre missing the point. The charts are a marketing tool.
It is in their interest to get the highest sales for a product. As the majors compete against each other, they try to game the charts just like everyone else.
There are safegards in place to prevent and detect gaming.
The majors' strategies are more sophisticated than simply multiplay strategies (which are already mitigated).
I know for a fact they the multiplay process described here has little or no effect on the outcome of a streaming based chart and
Re: Depends on the What The Goal of the List is (Score:2)
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By the sounds of it, you listen to him.
he is one of the most generic rappers I have ever heard
back in ancient times... (Score:1)
(before internet streaming) labels would 'buy' their own product to achieve the same thing. they probably still do.
book publishers have done the same thing for decades to buy their way to the top of best seller lists.
What's the difference between this and payola (Score:5, Interesting)
Back in the day, labels/artists would pay DJs to play certain tapes or tracks over and over again even if they weren't all that good just to get them to the top. They still do in a way but nowadays the music labels simply own the radio stations so nobody gets paid.
There were ways to get around the labels and some artists also got very creative to spike the public's ears (eg Bohemian Rhapsody).
I'd say what old is new again, as long as people care about any single list to inform their taste this will happen.
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Because the sheep aren't supposed to show any initiative. They are supposed to listen to whatever they are told to enjoy and like it.
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"and some artists also got very creative to spike the public's ears (eg Bohemian Rhapsody)."
I'm puzzled as to what you mean here. Do you mean "make a good song" or is their some weird history to bohemian rhapsody I've never heard of?
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I was wondering too and I suspect it might be this:
Release [wikipedia.org]
Basically everyone told them the song was too long to ever get airplay so...
According to producer Roy Thomas Baker, he and the band bypassed this corporate decision by playing the song for Capital Radio DJ Kenny Everett: "we had a reel-to-reel copy but we told him he could only have it if he promised not to play it. 'I won't play it,' he said, winking..."[4] Their plan worked – Everett teased his listeners by playing only parts of the song. Audience demand intensified when Everett played the full song on his show 14 times in two days.[16] Hordes of fans attempted to buy the single the following Monday, only to be told by record stores that it had not yet been released.[4] The same weekend, Paul Drew, who ran the RKO stations in the States, heard the track on Everett's show in London. Drew managed to get a copy of the tape and started to play it in the States, which forced the hand of Queen's US label, Elektra. In an interview with Sound on Sound, Baker reflects that "it was a strange situation where radio on both sides of the Atlantic was breaking a record that the record companies said would never get airplay!"[4]
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Nice, you're probably right although what an oddball thing for the parent to drop without an explanation. Queen's best stuff was released before quite a lot of slashdot users were even alive.
Radio (Score:2)
Not likely (Score:2)
Years ago a new JLo song got to over 500 million views on youtube. I listened to it and there was nothing there. I had no desire to hear it again. It was a flop.
I always wondered if it hadn't been artificially plumped up.
not a problem (Score:2)
If you simply ignore the music charts, then there is no problem.
Cannot Comprehend 'Superfandom' (Score:5, Interesting)
I simply cannot comprehend this 'superfandom' phenomenon. I can understand _really_ liking a band, even liking them so much that you encourage, repeatedly, all your friends to listen to them. You buy their merchandise, you go to their concerts, you follow the personal lives of the band members. All understandable, not the type of thing I would do, but I get it.
But paying money out of your own pocket for no personal gain other than your favorite band doing better in the charts? Why? Why not spend that money on more concert tickets, the money will still make it to the band? I just can't understand it
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Honest question: You understand volunteering for political parties?
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Honest question: You understand volunteering for political parties?
Yes I understand volunteering for political parties, I have done so myself. The gain was that I thought I was making (in some minuscule fashion) my country a better place. I volunteered for a party that promised to achieve various economic and political goals etc etc. None of those goals, if met would have benefited me directly, I just agreed with them from a moral perspective even though they would not affect me.
Are you saying the people paying to support/spoof plays for this band on spotify to get them
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They do think that they make the world of sports or music a better one. And I'd guess that's important to them, just as "your country" (funny notion, "your" country when you actually own, at best, a tiny portion of it) is to you.
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Don't you remember teen/tween girls going ga-ga for boy-bands or whomever the heart throb at the moment was?
I remember this very clearly, but I think that reaction is more involuntary, driven by a kind lust (hormonal-teenager proto-lust). Equally as irrational, but understandable as an involuntary response to stimulus. Kind of like a young teenage boy getting an erection in public the first time he sees a woman sunbathing nude (for example). The reaction of the girls going 'ga-ga' at the boy-band is almost identical, except there is no shame or embarrassment attached so naturally the reaction is amplified by p
Try neuroscience Re:Cannot Comprehend Superfandom (Score:3)
Psych 101, man. Fan is short for "fanatic," after all. In cognitive neuroscience, we use scales that assess subjects' attitudes that allow us to rank, rate, and partition their behaviors. You can google Celebrity Attitude Scale for one of the more prevalent scales we use when assessing obsession. People with higher scores on the scale possess a well-defined spectrum of cognitive and social dysfunctions. They will, with a probability approaching unity, have negative body image, poor interpersonal boundar
I feel nostalgic (Score:2)
Back in the early days of radio, radio stations asked their listeners to send in post cards with their favorite song so they'd play it. Which quickly prompted wannabe stars to send in hundreds of post cards to promote their own crooning.
It didn't take long for studios to butt in and in the end, the only one really benefiting from the whole shit was the postal service that saw a spike in postcard and stamp sales. Our radio stations quickly ended it, allegedly when they received nearly a million postcards (ou
Do they not sell albums anymore? (Score:2)
missing the real issue... (Score:1)
This sort of manipulation ... (Score:2)
how about not... (Score:2)
I mean , why do I want a list , made by anyone, to tell me what I should listen too.
Honestly I mostly listen to the same songs over and over again, in my playlist. Why , because they are the ones I like and especially when they are 'background' music I'd rather not have my attention drawn to something unfamiliar. Those list don't need to be updated weekly, or even monthly. Especially if you make 1 with 100 songs or so on it. It is a false market pressure that people need to listen to 'the new' thing. I
In other words: "Plays" are a problematic matric (Score:2)
I would suggest a set of new metrics.... Number of unique users that played this week and Geometric Mean of plays per month per unique User
In order to discourage cheating... A unique user shall have: a verified name, e-mail address, verified cell phone number shared with no other user, and verified scan of passport, driver's license, or national ID card with the name and address on the ID matching a name and address listed on the account.
But Mom! (Score:2)
I wanted to listen to that one song from the SuperTramp album over and over and over and over!
Could you close the door please?
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I wanted to listen to that one song from the SuperTramp album over and over and over and over!
Are you feeling so logical?
D-d-digital...
Voting (Score:2)
And this is why we need on-line voting!
[/sarcasm]