Amuse presents feature to help DIY artists fight artificial streams 09 Jul 2024
Stream Check takes the pulse of Amuse-distributed catalog to indicate streaming health
Streaming fraud is one of the greatest challenges facing today’s music industry. Detailed streaming data can be difficult to access as well as interpret, so legitimate artists often have no way of knowing if their music is being streamed by bots until it is removed from DSPs. Equipping artists with the resources to fight artificial streams proactively, data-driven artist services company Amuse introduces Stream Check, an industry-first to increase data transparency and identify fraudulent streaming.
“While there are plenty of bad actors who systemize streaming fraud, artificial streaming can also happen to artists who haven’t done anything at all. An artist may cluelessly use a third-party promotion partner who turns out to be a bad choice, or legitimate tracks are added to a third-party playlist that utilizes bots without artists knowing, but the artist faces the penalties,” says Amuse Interim Chief Product Officer Erik Söderblom. “Amuse is proud to offer artists a proactive solution that puts them in the driver’s seat with all the tools they need to monitor and protect their catalog and livelihood.”
Stream Check takes a nuanced approach to artificial streaming, educating artists about its consequences. While other distributors have adopted a reactionary strike system, or even monetized the possibility to reupload taken down music, Amuse offers a proactive alternative: a colorful catalog health bar that indicates what share of an artist’s streams were deemed artificial by Spotify during the last month.
If an artist’s Stream Check dashboard shows no artificial activity, they don’t need to take any action. On the other hand, a health bar in orange or red territory indicates that streaming fraud is taking place and that the artist is at risk of facing fines or seeing their music removed from DSPs. Luckily, Amuse also provides a knowledge base of proactive actions these artists can take against the artificial streams to eliminate these risks and restore their catalog’s health.
“As a particularly data-focused company, Amuse has spent years building an internal system to prevent streaming fraud and collecting monthly Spotify Withheld Streams reports. Thanks to all of this groundwork, we developed the Stream Check feature in a matter of weeks,” explains Louise Frodsham, Director of Customer Operations at Amuse. “We are thrilled to unveil this feature to all artists who distribute their music through Amuse, and we look forward to continuing to educate and surface data that empowers them to fight this industry-wide problem.”
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THE HEADLINES
How Live Nation is devouring the live music industry (see Analysis)
Nick Clegg: Artists’ demands over copyright are unworkable (see News)
Beeban Kidron: We have a chance to prevent AI decimating Britain’s creative industries – but it’s slipping away (see Comment)
The Ivors Academy: "creating the global recognition that songwriters and composers deserve" (see News)
SoundCloud integrates into TikTok's Add to Music App (see Digital)
Why some artists are rethinking touring (see Analysis)
Spotify reveals its Songs Of Summer predictions (see Digital)
Government defeated for third time in Lords over copyright protection against AI (see News)
Young people are being excluded from live music (see Comment)
Lambeth council acted ‘irrationally’ over approval of summer festivals, High Court rules (see News)
UK Music and Elton John deliver warning about Government’s AI copyright plans (see News)
You can’t put a price on culture—but you can put a price on saving it (see Comment)
SoundCloud backtracks on AI-related terms-of-use updates (see Digital)
Data Bill returns to the Commons today for crucial vote (see News)