So an Email Arrives from imusician , claiming i had FAKE STREAMS on spotify.
I DID NOT.
i’m an honest person, an honest guy.
i’m not a Fck@#ng thief, and more than that: my streams is always from 10 to 30 a day, so THERE ARE NO PEAKS.
THIS IS A FRAUD, I AM NOT.
it’s offensive, it’s disgusting.
i’m NOt earning money, it’s so little money i’m making that i probably LOSE money…but AT LEAST DON’T TREAT ME LIKE A FRAUD!!! I DON’T DESERVE IT!
Received the same Email today… Never bought streams so looks like a System error to me.
spotify told me to contact IMUSICIAN.
here we are.
I just recieve the same mail… No precision, and of course I never do anything.
Spotify fraud fee?
I received the same email today. Is this a joke? I’ve never tried to artificially generate streams, push, etc.
I’ve received the same email and I don’t understand why. Never bought streams or listened to my own music on repeat.
i’ve been talking with spotify. this is what they said: “giusto per darti qualche informazione, Spotify non assegna ammonizioni agli artisti per lo streaming artificiale, ma alcuni distributori hanno le proprie politiche in materia di ammonizioni.” we definitely deserve answers NOW ì, by imusician.
I’m in your same situation, I think this is a fraud.
I received the same.
I don’t what Spotify is talking about.
hi everybody, I’m forwarding this issue to @Carlos from the Team 
good. this is a very , VERY, bad situation.
Hello everyone,
Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concerns on this matter.
The penalties are applied directly by Spotify in line with their zero-tolerance policy on artificial streams. iMusician has no influence over these decisions. What we are doing is informing you ahead of time so you’re not taken by surprise when the penalties appear in your sales report, and so you can take steps to protect your catalog going forward. Please refer to the prevention tips and resources linked in our email.
WHAT???
spotify, i’ve asked them, says this is your policy.
I QUOTE: giusto per darti qualche informazione, Spotify non assegna ammonizioni agli artisti per lo streaming artificiale, ma alcuni distributori hanno le proprie politiche in materia di ammonizioni.
i received a mail sayin i’ve used artificial streams, THIS IS NOT TRUE.
take our responibility: spotif says you (as imusician, not you personally)made this decision, and says that we should talk to you. now you say t’s all about them.
don’t treat us like stupid children, this is YOUR PROBLEM, YOU HAVE TO SOLVE IT.
I’M NOT ACCEPTING BEING CALLED CHEATER Y ANYONE,
i hope you get this clear.
feel free to contact me by mail or phone. i’m NOT getting back on this.
i’m furious. it’s not a matter of money, it’s a matter of principle.
to be complete. this is the mail i received from you, or ate least the beginning of it, i’m not copying that al cause you know perfectly te text:
Ciao Mattia,
Spotify ci ha segnalato attività di streaming sospette nel tuo catalogo. Di conseguenza, Spotify applica una penale di 10 € per ogni brano oppure annulla completamente tutti i ricavi delle tracce coinvolte. Tali ascolti fraudolenti non verranno contabilizzati.
this meansd that spotify says i’m a cheater, and my streams are a fraud, and i’m getting a penalty.
i dont deserve it, i’m not a cheater, my streams are not a fraud.
spotify says i have to talk to you.
You say “it’s spotify , not us”. well, spotify only taks to the distributors, i’ve ben in contact with spotify , made several request, and told me every time that the distributor has to talk to spotify. so you have to talk to spotify and defend us.
thats’ the situation.
every different answer is unaccettable…
Excuse me, but I will not accept this punishment. The email with the “tips” is pointless, since I apparently landed on a (presumably American) playlist with a song that no longer existed after 24 hours. How am I supposed to report such a playlist? That was, local time, in the middle of the night. Sorry I want to sleep at night and not google whether the streams there were legal? How am I supposed to know? The next day, it only seemed suspicious to me because the playlist and account no longer existed. Am I supposed to be prosecuted because some dubious sites/accounts/users… shared one of my songs? The playlist contained about 100 songs by all sorts of (unknown) people. I neither commissioned anyone nor used any services, etc. for this. You’re talking about “fairness”? lol, it’s more Spotify’s job to ensure that such illegal accounts and playlists don’t even come into being.
I don’t make music to make money. I gave up on that dream long ago. So far, I haven’t even earned 5 euros from it in the last few years. But if things continue like this, I’ll be out of Spotify and won’t be releasing anything there anymore. Besides, I’m also about to change distributors.
Thank you both for your replies. We completely understand your frustration and your perspectives on this matter.
It’s important to know that Spotify applies penalties whenever they detect what they classify as “fraudulent” streaming activity, regardless of the artist’s intentions or awareness. This does not mean that they are calling you a “cheater” or a “thief.” Rather, Spotify operates on a very large scale and unfortunately does not investigate cases individually.
That’s a common misunderstanding. In reality, Spotify directly applies these penalties to the sales revenue depending on the gravity of the suspected fraud (whether intentional or not). Once we are notified of this, our role is to pass that information on to you.
We understand how unfair this feels, but yes — at the moment, Spotify does apply penalties even in cases where suspicious third-party activity is involved. We also believe the platform should be doing more to prevent such accounts and playlists from existing in the first place, but unfortunately, they don’t seem to be making much progress on this.
Right now, the only official tool Spotify offers is a reporting form for suspicious playlists: Spotify
We know this isn’t the answer you were hoping for, and we’re truly sorry we can’t provide a more satisfying solution. What we can do is keep you informed as soon as we receive updates from Spotify, so you can take the necessary steps to protect your catalog going forward.
y previous post have been removed due to rude and harsh language.
I understnd and i pologize.
I will post now the info i have, tryng to be more cold and less harsh.
Carlo , by IMUSICIANS, say this is not calling us cheaters.
This is simply not logical: if we are lent streams we are considered cheaters.
Is there any other definition ? I don’t think so, but please feel free to tell me one, if i missed it.
We are pusniished with a 10 euro fee and we lost the money we hould have got by those who are co nsidered fraudlent streams.
This is a punishment we don’t think we deserve, because we did not do anything wrong. At least: I, personally, NEVER used fake stream servics or other similar stuff.
I’ve chatted 12 times with SPOTIFY,and here are some important points that came out.
Carlos, Imusicians’s staff, says (quote): That’s a common misunderstanding. In reality, Spotify directly applies these penalties to the sales revenue depending on the gravity of the suspected fraud (whether intentional or not). Once we are notified of this, our role is to pass that information on to you. “
but Spotify wrote me (and i quote again): Just to give you some information, Spotify does not issue warnings to artists for artificial streaming, but some distributors have their own policies regarding warnings “
theese two affirmatipons are in total contradiction, it’s impossibile for both of them to be true.
Which one is true?
In those 11 chats i had, spotify servce gave me multiple times this answer:
" We recommend that you contact your distributor, as Spotify does not issue warnings to artists. However, some distributors may have their own policies regarding warnings. For more information on those policies, we encourage you to check your distributor’s resources or reach out to them directly.
Additionally, if you believe that all your streams were obtained authentically, you can share information with your distributor about the methods you used to promote your music in a genuine way. They can forward this information to our content team for review”
“If you believe these streams are the result of organic and legitimate promotion, you can provide your distributor with information about the methods and services you used. They can then forward this to our Content team, who will take it into consideration. “
“I recommend contacting your distributor for further details. I’m afraid we won’t be able to fulfill your request. We don’t have any additional information to share, so I’ll be closing this conversation. We’ll be here if you need any further assistance. “
so: the only way i did promote my music was with post on social media (you can check my youtube page, “mattia balboni” , my IG and FB “tia Balboni” ).
i don’t eeven have informtion on what streams, songs, o plaaylist are “suspicious”, as spotify clearly stated that cannot give me this information , because they don’t talk to artists but only to distrbutors.
i’s clearly yur job , your duty, to deal with this, as spotify clearly states.
I hope this post helps you understand the situation, but let me be clear:
again i apologize for my bad language and rude behaviour, but this is the harsh, plain and simple situation.
How do we reach spotify then ?
and how do we know which song they are talking about ?
as what spotif says; we cannot, as artist, but we can ask the disributor.
i reached spotify via spotify for ariss assistance chatt. once you pass hte auomated answer and ask for a human .
i copyed and pasted he answer hey give. i just ended my conversation numer 13 with that service, alwas same answer.
that is one of the reasons why i’m so frustrated and angry, but i again apologize for my bad language
.
i add the last answer that i had with spotif assistance: “Spotify may impose a penalty on distributors for distributing content that is streamed almost entirely artificially, and they may decide to pass that penalty on to the artist. Spotify will not charge any fee directly to the artist.”
i think this is a very clear statement.