Tackling streaming fraud is becoming a key objective for the music business.
In January, we reported on a recent French study showing that up to 3% of music streams on services like Spotify are known to be fraudulent.
As previously noted by MBW, this number only represents the ‘fake streams’ that services can actually detect; it doesn’t include the ones they don’t find.
Just last week, France-born music streaming service Deezer set out a strategy to address fraudulent streaming activity on its platform.
Now, a number of other music companies ranging from distributors to other streaming platforms like Spotify and Amazon Music have come together in what they call “an unprecedented alliance” to form ‘Music Fights Fraud’, described as a global task force “aimed at eradicating streaming fraud”.
Amongst the founding members are music companies CD Baby and its parent company Downtown, TuneCore and its parent company Believe, DistroKid, UnitedMasters, Symphonic, EMPIRE, and Vydia along with digital service providers Spotify and Amazon Music.
According to the media statement announcing the new initiative, ‘Music Fights Fraud’ represents “the first time all corners of the music industry have aligned as a united front to combat fraud in music streaming”.
Music Fights Fraud says its focus will be on streaming fraud and streaming manipulation across digital streaming services.
The group of companies say that they will “work to ensure that the global music streaming market is fair and that all members actively contribute to solutions intended to balance the equity of its operations”.
The objectives of Music Fights Fraud are “to detect, prevent, mitigate and enforce anti-fraud measures, thereby moving closer to an industry where fraud has no place”.
The members of the Music Fights Fraud alliance say that they will provide “greater cross-platform collaboration and data sharing” in coordination with a third party, the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA), a nonprofit partnership between private organizations, government, and academia.
The NCFTA says that its mission “is to provide a neutral, trusted environment enabling multi-party collaboration to identify, mitigate, and disrupt cyber crime”.
Additionally, according to the announcement, each of the participating companies claim to have “instituted internal measures to contend with fraud”.
The statement adds: “It has been estimated that industry-wide, streaming abuse could account for hundreds of millions of dollars lost each year.
Streaming abuse, encompassing bots, streaming click farms, and imposters, impacts all artists – both self-released and those signed to labels. It affects the music industry by diluting the royalty pool, reducing revenue for legitimate streams, and slowing the approval and release process for creators”.
Music Fights Fraud says that it is a self-governing association with future membership subject to approval by its members.
“Given our deep commitment to empowering creators, we recognize that working with parties outside of our organization is also an important step in developing a comprehensive plan to strengthen the music ecosystem.”
Andrew Bergman, Downtown Music Holdings
Andrew Bergman, CEO, Downtown Music Holdings said: “Downtown holds Trust and Safety for our clients and industry partners as a core pillar of our organization. We are proud to combine forces with our colleagues across the industry and build on the fantastic work already developed at Downtown to identify and address abusive streaming behavior.
“Given our deep commitment to empowering creators, we recognize that working with parties outside of our organization is also an important step in developing a comprehensive plan to strengthen the music ecosystem.”
“As streaming has grown and dominated our industry the opportunities for bad actors to take advantage of the fragmentation has grown as well.”
Christine Barnum, CD Baby
CD Baby’s Chief Revenue Officer Christine Barnum, said: “For 25 years, CD Baby has been committed to offering access for independent musicians and songwriters to grow their careers.
“As streaming has grown and dominated our industry the opportunities for bad actors to take advantage of the fragmentation has grown as well.
“I am proud for CD Baby to be a founding member of Music Fights Fraud and for us to join forces to build a united and comprehensive solution to ensure all music creators are being compensated, with royalties generated making it to the right hands.”
“Believe is committed to fostering a fairer, balanced and diverse artist and label market, where all music creators can thrive.”
Denis Ladegaillerie, Believe
Believe’s Founder & CEO Denis Ladegaillerie, added: “Believe is committed to fostering a fairer, balanced and diverse artist and label market, where all music creators can thrive.
“As we build the future of our industry, we must ensure fake streaming and abusive streaming do not have a place. The launch of Music Fights Fraud is an important step towards that goal, and I am proud to join hands with our digital music partners and distributors to ensure we find effective ways to stop fraud streaming, to ultimately bring more fairness and transparency to the music sector.”
“TuneCore is proud to join other leading digital music distributors and DSPs to, for the first time ever, pool our resources and stand together to fight streaming fraud and create a fairer, more equitable streaming landscape for creators.”
Andreea Gleeson, TuneCore
Andreea Gleeson, CEO, TuneCore, said: “Streaming fraud is a costly issue, with bad actors diluting the royalty pool and taking money out of the pockets of legitimate music creators.
“This has a great impact on self-releasing artists, who account for 5.7% of the world’s recorded music and represent the fastest growing sector of the global music industry, with over 6.4 million artists (according to MIDiA Research).
“TuneCore is proud to join other leading digital music distributors and DSPs to, for the first time ever, pool our resources and stand together to fight streaming fraud and create a fairer, more equitable streaming landscape for creators.”
“UnitedMasters is working to provide our artists the tools and education they need to grow their fanbases and own their futures.”
Said Shirin Keen, UnitedMasters
Said Shirin Keen, General Counsel, UnitedMasters, said: “UnitedMasters is working to provide our artists the tools and education they need to grow their fanbases and own their futures.
“To do that, we must tackle one of the issues plaguing the industry and reducing the earnings of independent artists, streaming fraud. This alliance represents unity across the industry that will advance and impact all artists, and we’re proud to be a part of it.”
“Symphonic looks forward to collaboratively partnering with our digital community in an effort to eliminate streaming fraud for the health of the industry as a whole, particularly our creator community.”
Jorge Brea, Symphonic
Jorge Brea, Chief Executive Officer, Symphonic said: “Symphonic has proactively taken measures at great expense to combat streaming fraud based on our own internal data and research.
“We know our industry counterparts have diligently been fighting their own battles as well. This has been a struggle we are all enduring individually. As part of Music Fights Fraud we can go beyond commiserating with one another to taking real action together. There is strength in numbers and, collectively, we have the best chance of tackling streaming fraud.
Added Brea: “Joining forces of both distributors and DSPs provides for a transparent compilation of knowledge that can be actioned upon.
“Symphonic looks forward to collaboratively partnering with our digital community in an effort to eliminate streaming fraud for the health of the industry as a whole, particularly our creator community.”
“EMPIRE is proud to stand with industry leaders to collectively maintain the integrity of the music ecosystem for artists, songwriters, and everyone involved in the creation of music.”
Stephen White, EMPIRE
Said Stephen White, Chief Product Officer at EMPIRE: “The launch of this industry-wide initiative marks an unprecedented and significant stride forward in protecting the rights of creators.
“EMPIRE is proud to stand with industry leaders to collectively maintain the integrity of the music ecosystem for artists, songwriters, and everyone involved in the creation of music.”
“Vydia is proud to champion this cause, alongside other industry leaders, to create parity amongst artists and labels in the streaming ecosystem.”
Matthew Skiba, Vydia
Matthew Skiba, VP, Rights and Content, Vydia said: “Vydia continues to create tools and resources that allow its label clients to operate in an environment impacted by the onslaught of streaming fraud, however, the bad actors continue to pursue and pivot their approach.
“This illicit activity not only affects artists, labels, and the DSPs, but consumers, too. As such, Vydia is proud to champion this cause, alongside other industry leaders, to create parity amongst artists and labels in the streaming ecosystem.”
“Artificial streaming is an industry-wide issue, and we are encouraged by the collaboration of this new alliance.”
Charlie Hellman, Spotify
Charlie Hellman, VP, Global Head of Music Product, Spotify said: “It is critical to the Spotify mission that royalties are paid to legitimate artists for legitimate streams.
“Artificial streaming is an industry-wide issue, and we are encouraged by the collaboration of this new alliance.”
“Amazon Music is committed to supporting a healthy music industry where artists and creators are able to thrive.”
Rishi Mirchandani, Amazon Music
Rishi Mirchandani, VP Licensing and Strategy, Amazon Music, added: “Amazon Music is committed to supporting a healthy music industry where artists and creators are able to thrive. We are proud to join Music Fights Fraud alongside key leaders across the industry to address streaming fraud and tackle this issue together.”
Portia Sabin, President of Music Biz, said: “The music industry is an ecosystem, and the Music Business Association has members from all sectors of the music industry, allowing us to see the effect of fraud on the ecosystem as a whole.
“We applaud Music Fights Fraud for working together to combat this industry issue and we look forward to supporting their efforts moving forward.”
Mitch Glazier, Chairman & CEO, Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA), added: “Digital streaming has been a game-changing innovation for artists, songwriters, and the entire music ecosystem, rising from a 15% share to 84% of US recorded music revenues in the last 10 years.
“Music creators, distributors, and services all have a shared stake in a healthy, reliable streaming economy that values human artistry, protects creators’ rights and supports authentic streams.
“RIAA supports new innovations in the fight against all forms of stream manipulation, fraud, and piracy and welcomes the efforts of Music Fights Fraud.”
Music Business Worldwide
