A couple of years ago, Music Business Worldwide unearthed a shady operation out of Bulgaria that’s as fascinating as it is alarming.

It revealed the dark side of the streaming economy.

Two obscure playlists, “Soulful Music” and “Music From The Heart,” appeared on Spotify and rapidly climbed Spotify’s global playlist chart, a ranking based on revenue generation over seven days.

These playlists beat major-label-owned playlists but were filled with tracks from unknown artists.

How did they generate so much revenue?

There were three elements to this plot:

• Short songs: Every song on these playlists was barely over 30 seconds. Why? Because it’s the minimum length to trigger a monetized play on Spotify.

• Massive amount of tracks: the playlists had around 500 tracks each.

• Paid listeners: each playlist had around 1,200 monthly listeners, and they were all premium subscriptions.

But a modestly followed playlist shouldn’t generate that much revenue, so where’s the trick?

These 1,200 Spotify accounts were all created by one entity in Bulgaria. They would put these accounts to “listen” to the playlist’s tracks on a loop, at random. To hit those big revenue numbers, these accounts had to be premium, paid-for subscriptions, running nonstop 24/7.

With 1,200 accounts at $9.99 a month, that’s $11,988 a month. And according to Spotify’s payout per stream ($0.004), the potential monthly revenue is $288,000. If bots are involved in skipping tracks at the 30-second monetization point, this number could soar to $415,000 (103 million plays per month x $0.004 per play).

And this is just for one playlist!

Spotify removed most of these tracks, but not before these guys extracted over $1 million across four months.

However, operations like these are draining potentially millions from a royalty pool meant for legitimate artists and labels.

It makes you wonder how many more are using the platform with these playlists stuffed with cheap music.

This practice is still happening

Last year, an indie record company from Sweden called Firefly Entertainment amassed $7 million in a year, a 10x increase in just three years.

It was too good to be true.

It was another “fake artist” gameplay on Spotify. It had zero online presence that had tracks all over Spotify’s mood and chillout playlists.

The Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyheter (DN) uncovered over 500 of these tracks penned by a mere 20 songwriters. For instance, one composer alone was behind the music for 62 fake artists, pulling in 7.7 million listeners per month.

Are they getting any special treatment?

Firefly’s investment in TSX Entertainment, a new venture by a former Spotify executive, would make you think it’s not a coincidence.

Another record label, Chillmi, specializes in fictional artists' chillout music.

They have over 2.5 billion streams on Spotify, and in 2015, they were commissioned by Spotify to produce instrumental tracks for its chillout playlists. Digging into their business, certain questions arise:

• Can the 2,500 songs, with 1 million streams per song, have been created by one person?

• Have they been strategically placed by Spotify in highly valuable playlists, given their past relationship?

So many questions, so few answers.

That hasn’t stopped Chillmi from generating between $540k and $1.7 million annually.

The hidden marketplace

Fake streams and phantom listeners are abundant in the music industry.

But how do you buy this service?

(Asking for a friend)

It’s not like they’re going to openly offer their services to rig the game.

Well, reporters Åsa Johansson and Martin Hävner went undercover, aiming to disclose these dubious activities. They uploaded a basic jingle, looped it into a two-minute track called “Loopiloop” by “Masas,” and then bought their fame with some fake listeners.

After a few clicks and about 50€ (or $55), “Loopiloop” skyrocketed to 46,000 streams in under two weeks. If you’re curious, this website can get you 30,000 listeners for 190€ ($208). FYI, that’s not an affiliate link.

When they asked Spotify about this, they didn’t reply.

Spotify had previously said that the manipulated streams were below 1%. However, analyst Mark Mullighan suggests that up to 10% of streams could be bogus. That’s hundreds of millions of fake streams!

What’s this doing to the industry?

First, if it’s that easy to boost your “views” on Spotify and inflate your royalties, those fake artists are getting the revenue that’s meant for legitimate musicians. We’re all witnessing how funds are being diverted to the thief’s pockets.

Second, if this practice continues, advertisers will realize that paying for ads to be broadcast to bots isn’t good business, and they’ll end up leaving these platforms. A decrease in revenue for these platforms could destabilize their financial model and undermine their viability. Thus, less money for artists in the long run.

Beneath the surface of streaming success lies a murky world, and who knows what else we’re unaware of.

The music industry is in danger

Sadly, it’s a world where streams = money.

This blurs the lines between genuine artistry and algorithm-friendly content.

Would you consider the following to be a genuinely successful artist?

This playlist has 100 songs with around 45 seconds each. The artist’s names seem normal, but no one has any bio or info about their music career on Spotify or social media accounts. It might easily be another one of those shady deals happening on Spotify.

What will happen to the music industry?

Its authenticity and integrity are in question.

If these practices become widespread, being a musician won’t mean anything. We could throw creativity and originality down the drain as the industry becomes overrun by a flood of artificial success.

Genuine talent? Not profitable.

Heartfelt music? Give me more of that manufactured popularity, please.

These are just some risks of having a marketplace that rewards numbers over artistry.

Think about listeners, too.

If audiences can no longer distinguish between authentic hits and algorithmically boosted tracks, what’s left for true music appreciation and artist recognition? These practices only erode the listeners’ faith in the platforms.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want all the music to sound the same and have diversity and experimentation give way to formulaic music designed to collect clicks.

Fair play in the music streaming business is not just about protecting revenues or market share.

It’s about preserving the soul of music itself.

Let’s ensure that music remains vibrant, diverse, and most importantly, real.