Music streaming has long since surpassed the sales of physical media such as CDs and LPs in terms of revenue. But at the same time, its success has also opened the door to manipulation. There are even platforms that openly sell artificial views, likes and subscribers for platforms such as Spotify. One such provider was the website “Pimpyourfollower.de”. But the Düsseldorf Regional Court has now classified its service as anti-competitive. The operator is also liable for damages.
Pimpyourfollower.de had offered to buy plays, likes and subscribers for platforms such as Spotify, YouTube and SoundCloud. Such manipulations were intended to create the illusion of more popularity and success than actually existed. Such sleight of hand tricks can ultimately distort the charts in music streaming. This also works to the detriment of honest record companies and artists, as their share of the revenue generated is automatically reduced. The German Federal Association of the Music Industry (BVMI), among others, took the company to court over this.
Music streaming: Manipulation affects not only Spotify, but also platforms such as SoundCloud. | Image: Samuel Regan-Asante via Unsplash
According to the industry association it is important to take legal action against such manipulation in music streaming. In the end, this harms the allocation of revenue and distorts the listening experience for fans. In the past, successes have been achieved against other manipulation service providers such as SP-Onlinepromotion.com, likeservice24.de and likeservice24.com. The operators of socialnow.de, socialgeiz.de and likergeiz.de, netlikes.de and likesandmore.de also had to stop their services.
Music streaming: Combating manipulation is a game of cat and mouse
Even though the BVMI is now publicly celebrating itself and talking about enormous successes for the music industry, we would like to point out that things may be different behind the scenes. For every provider that is successfully taken off the internet, two new ones spring up. A few years ago, a report by ARD and the public YouTube channel Y-Kollektiv showed how easy it can be to climb up the charts on Spotify, for example.
It is doubtful that much has changed since then. Ultimately, music streaming services are vulnerable to such manipulation. Even if detection improves and at least the most obvious offers are taken off the internet, the whole thing continues to simmer in secret. In the end, the ones who suffer are the honest musicians and the listeners.
A look at our list of the best shows you how we currently rate Spotify, Apple Music and Co. in comparison:
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