Spotify rejects ‘fake artists’ claim but MBW stands by report

Spotify has indignantly denied media allegations that it pays producers to create songs under phony names.

As reported by Music Business Worldwide, the fake artists are reportedly put on premium playlists – e.g. background or mood ones, such as the popular Peaceful Piano – so it generates money for the Swedish streaming service and reduces the royalties that have to be shared with artists.

The allegations suggest that the streaming service with 140 million users, by essentially denying "real" artists these incredibly valuable spots on wildly popular playlists, is at the very least acting unethically, and possibly acting fraudulently.

The story was first reported in MBW last August, and was cited last week by Vulture when it made the accusation that two acts Deep Watch and Enno Aare did not exist.

Spotify snapped back a few days later in a missive to Billboard (which ran a piece on the allegations but did not make them): “We do not and have never created ’fake’ artists and put them on Spotify playlists. Categorically untrue, full stop.

“We pay royalties ­– sound and publishing – for all tracks on Spotify, and for everything we playlist. We do not own rights, we’re not a label, all our music is licensed from rightsholders and we pay them – we don’t pay ourselves.”

However, Music Business Worldwide has stood by its reporting, and its claims it found 50 fake names.

It says they are unknowns but without any presence elsewhere on the internet, They have no Facebook pages or SoundCloud accounts and their music is not on YouTube or Apple Music. 

But they still managed to generate a total of 520 million streams which amount to over $3 million in royalty pay-outs. 

This is the MBW list, along with total streams:

   Aaron Lansing (11.3m)

   Advaitas (7.4m)

   Allysa Nelson (4.3m)

   Amity Cadet (9.2m)

   Amy Yeager (5.7m)

   Ana Olgica (23.5m)

   Antologie (5.8m)

   Benny Bernstein (9.6m)

   Benny Treskow (14.9m)

   Bon Vie (4.7m)

   Caro Utobarto (1.2m)

   Charles Bolt (32.4m)

   Charlie Key (23.6m)

   Christopher Colman (509k)

   Clay Edwards (4.7m)

   Deep Watch (4.8m)

   Dylan Francis (6.5m)

   Enno Aare (17.1m)

   Evelyn Stein (14.3m)

   Fellows (3.3m)

   Gabriel Parker (24.9m)

   Giuseppe Galvetti (2.7m)

   Greg Barley (21.4m)

   Heinz Goldblatt (513k)

   Hermann (11.8m)

   Hiroshi Yamazaki (8.6m)

   Hultana (3.2m)

   Jeff Bright Jr (15.8m)

   Jonathan Coffey (480k)

   Józef Gatysik (10.4m)

   Karin Borg (24.2m)

   Leon Noel (2.7m)

   Lo Mimieux (22.3m)

   Martin Fox (2.5m)

   Mayhem (10.2m)

   Mbo Mentho (10.3m)

   Mia Strass (8.9m)

   Milos Stavos (7.1m)

   Novo Talos (17.2m)

   Otto Wahl (27m)

   Pernilla Mayer (4.2m)

   Piotr Miteska (26.7m)

   Relajar (13.4m)

   Risto Carto (1.7m)

   Sam Eber (1.6m)

   Samuel Lindon (11.8m)

   The 2 Inversions (10.3m)

   They Dream By Day (16.2m)

   Tony Lieberman (2.5m)

   Wilma Harrods (5.3m)

This story is still developing and will be updated.