Music Promo services: A path to success or streaming fraud?

If the promises made by a music promotion service sound just too good to be true, there’s a good chance they probably are.

Guest post from Horus Music

We have recently been contacted by Spotify about an increase in the use of illegitimate music promotion services to increase streams. Always be careful to check and verify the companies who offer services as they can often be scams. These streams are usually achieved by using bots, which are automated tools to perform a repeated action. This can include many different actions, but in this instance they usually play a track on loop to appear as if it has been streamed several times.

Things to look out for which may indicate an illegitimate company:

• Guaranteed streams – If a company tells you they can guarantee you a certain number of streams, this may be because they generate these fraudulently.
• Guaranteed playlist placements – The Spotify editorial team only accept submissions through Spotify for Artists, and you cannot pay to get a place on these. Paying to get on editorial playlists is actually illegal.

Stores such as Spotify have measures to check whether streams are legitimate, so they can often spot when fraudulent services have been used.

The result of using an illegitimate company is a threat to your work and artistry. They do not provide representative data, as the streams do not come from real fans and therefore the analytics cannot be used accurately. They can also impact the success of any future releases if your music is pushed to the wrong people as a result of the fake streams.

If it seems your streams may have been generated as a result of using these services, any royalties generated this way will be suspended and in the most serious cases, your releases may be taken down.

If you have been contacted regarding fraudulent streams but you believe these are legitimate, please email alr@horusmusic.co.uk to provide proof of your marketing campaign or other efforts that may have contributed to the increase in streams.

If you’re looking for a legitimate way to boost streams, Horus Music offers a range of marketing services suitable for a variety of budgets. These include playlist pitching directly to the editorial teams at our partner platforms, digital PR and UK radio plugging. You can read more about those here, or get in touch with us for more information.