Your song has been out for a week. A promotion account offers thousands of streams for a small fee. The website looks professional, the package says “organic,” and the screenshots look convincing. What should you check before paying?
Start with the promise itself. Spotify says third-party services selling guaranteed streams or guaranteed playlist placement violate its rules. Using them can put your music at risk of removal. The word “organic” does not change the offer underneath it. Read Spotify’s guidance on paid promotion services.
For independent artists, understanding streaming fraud is part of planning a release. Your promotion budget should help people discover your music, with a clear explanation of where the money goes.
What changed in September 2026?
On September 14, 2026, IFPI announced the Streaming Integrity Initiative, an industry commitment to tackling streaming fraud. Its baseline practices cover customer and rights checks, content vetting, action on suspected fraud, lawful intelligence sharing, and ongoing improvements to detection systems. Read the official IFPI announcement.
This is a commitment by participating industry organizations, rather than a new universal law or a promise that fraud will disappear. For artists, it is a timely reason to review who promotes your releases and what you authorize them to do.
What is artificial streaming?
Spotify describes an artificial stream as a play that does not reflect genuine listening intent, including activity generated through bots or scripts. Its stated policy excludes detected artificial plays from royalties, public counts, charts, and positive recommendation effects. Depending on the case, further consequences can include playlist or track removal and action by the distributor. Spotify’s artificial streaming education center explains its approach.
Keep the distinction between a warning sign and a finding. An unexpected audience is something to investigate; a surprising location or one unusual day does not, by itself, prove that anyone used bots.
How to evaluate a music promotion offer
Before buying a campaign, ask the provider to describe the work in plain language. You should be able to understand what they will create, where it will appear, and how they will report it.
Ask the provider | What a useful answer explains |
|---|---|
What am I paying for? | Defined work such as producing creative assets, managing ads, or conducting documented outreach. |
Where will the campaign run? | Named channels, intended audiences, and the campaign schedule. |
How is the budget divided? | The service fee, media spend, and any other costs. |
What will I receive afterward? | A report connecting the work completed to observable results. |
What happens if activity looks suspicious? | A clear contact, a way to pause the campaign, and access to campaign records. |
Treat these as purchasing questions, not a certification process. A convincing answer is still something to verify against the proposal and the work delivered.
A useful personal rule is to avoid offers you cannot explain to a collaborator without repeating the seller’s slogans. “They will run these three ads to this audience for two weeks” is specific enough to review. “They know how to make the algorithm push me” gives you little to evaluate.
Watch your results in context
Keep a simple campaign log: start and end dates, provider names, spend, links to promotional posts, and any major moments such as a live performance or a creator sharing your song. This creates a reference point when results change.
Spotify identifies unexplained spikes and drop-offs, unusual geographic activity, unexpected stream sources, and brief follower surges as possible warning signs. It advises artists to inform their label or distributor about abnormalities and disclose promotion services they have used. See Spotify’s examples and reporting guidance.
Compare the timing with your own records. If you launched a targeted campaign in a new country, that provides context for a new audience there. If you cannot connect the change to anything you know about, collect the details and ask for help instead of announcing a breakthrough immediately.
What to do if your song appears on a suspicious playlist
Spotify provides a reporting route for suspicious playlists through its artificial streaming education center. A playlist addition alone is not proof of wrongdoing. Report the activity you can document without publicly accusing the curator.
Prepare a short incident record:
Save the playlist and track links. Include the name of the release and its ISRC if available.
Record when you noticed the change. Use dates, time zones, and screenshots showing the relevant period.
Describe what looks unusual. Separate observed numbers from your interpretation of them.
List promotion activity. Include providers, campaign dates, invoices, and relevant messages, even when the activity may be unrelated.
Ask for next steps. Let your distributor know whether you commissioned the placement and whether any paid campaign is still running.
If you hired a provider connected to the concern, request that they pause the work while it is reviewed. Keep their response with your records. Avoid making several unrelated changes to the release before support has enough information to understand what happened.
How DistroVibe artists should report a concern
DistroVibe’s current Anti-Fraud Policy requires prompt reporting of suspicious activity. It describes potential financial recovery and account or catalog consequences. Early reporting may help mitigate a case under the policy; it does not guarantee protection from penalties.
Send your incident record through the dashboard’s Support / Tickets section or contact support@distrovibe.com. The DistroVibe support guide explains the available contact routes.
A clear report helps keep the conversation focused. For example: “I noticed an unexplained change between these dates, this is the playlist involved, and these are the campaigns I have authorized.” Include evidence rather than assuming the team can infer the situation from a total stream count.
Build a promotion plan you can stand behind
Start your next campaign with a listener and a reason to care. Who is the song for? Which part of it makes the strongest introduction? Where do those people already discover music?
Then choose a small, reviewable activity: a performance clip, a story about the recording, outreach to a relevant publication, or an advertising test with a defined budget. Decide in advance what you want to learn. Keep the results and use them to make the next decision.
That approach gives you something useful even when a campaign underperforms: information about your message, audience, and creative work. A purchased play count cannot tell you why someone would come back for your next song.
When you are ready to release, explore DistroVibe’s distribution workflow and review its policies alongside the tools you need. Choose a DistroVibe plan for your next release, with promotion built around genuine listening and a clear record of your campaign activity.