We got a mail from you that Spotify is penalizing us for suspicious streaming activity.
Most of our songs doesn’t stream that much but there are a few songs with the artist Zulu that occaisonally get streamed a lot and here is the explanation:
Those songs are songs about the football team Hammarby IF from Stockholm. And every gameday the fans listens to ours and other Hammarby related music. Thats the reason for the “spikes” in streaming.
I guess Spotify isn’t penalizing ABBA because their song “Happy new year” is streamed more at new year.
Best wishes
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Ok read another question here dealing with the same issue.
So we are being trialed and judged by Spotify without a chance to defend ourselves?
They can just accuse us of being cheaters at their whim? And noone comes to our defense?
Is this justice?
I’m not going to accept any fee reduced from our catalog.
I hope Imusician is going to disclose the fee and the songs that are considered fraudulent.
What are we supposed to do? Tell everybody to not stream our songs because if they do than we are loosing more money than we rightfully earned.
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hi @Tubbis_2 I completely agree with you but it seems that this is the way spotify is handling the issue and there seem to be no reason they listen to… Anyways I’m tagging @Carlos from the support to go deeper into the issue 
Unfortunately yes. Spotify penalizes artists without providing any explanation to either them or their distributors. Our role is very limited and we’re only able to pass on the few information we get from them regarding their decision.
If you want to challenge Spotify’s decision to penalize your release that they detected as stream-boosted, you can put together a document with substantial proof that your streams are organic (Spotify doesn’t provide any instructions regarding this) and we’ll try to escalate it to them for reconsideration.
I’m afraid that’s all we can do at this point 
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i think we are at least 10 in the same situation, on the forum (probably more on imusician: people with amplify et similia does not need to use the forum, they have a direct contact, so we don’t see them).
we discussed a lot on a thread i did , it is closed now but i think it still exist. maybe you can find some more information there , in case you want them.
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hi @Tubbis_2 , this is the link to the topic Mattia refers to, I hope it’s still working
Yes that’s the thread I’m referring to in my second post.
Still doesn’t change a thing about Spotify being the judge and jury.
yep… But honestly that’s not what drives me mad. i still cannot understand, probably it’s my intellectual limit, how it’s possible to provide "a document with substantial proof that your streams are organic ". how can we prove we did not do something? my logic does not get it. carlos states that spotify does not provide instructions, spotify states that the it’s up to the distributors. we are in the middle of this.
we may live long, but not prosper. Qplà.
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Same situation for me, it’s extremely frustrating to be wrongly accused and then forced to prove the absence of any action. People really need to know about the outrageous practices Spotify is using.
@Carlos since this situation seems to affect a lot of people, couldn’t iMusician defend its users by initiating a collective action against Spotify on the grounds of a breach of the DSA directive or an abusive clause?
Also if iMusician is powerless facing this abuse of power and can’t protect its own customers what’s the point of paying the annual plan ? I’m an Amplify member and I’m glad with iMusician so far but it seems difficult to justify paying a subscription without the guarantee that arbitrary penalties cannot be levied at any time and ruin all my earnings.
The exchange I had with Spotify was Kafkaesque 
Basicaly :
- I understand but you have to give a proof of your communication methods
- I don’t have a communication
- there’s nothing we can do
So what can be done ?
The penalties being applied by Spotify are independent from the distributor. I understand how frustrating this may be, but Spotify is one platform amongst many other and ultimately it is up to you to decide whether or not you want to release your music there 
As a distributor, our role is to deliver your music to the shops you select and to forward all the information + revenue being communicated by them. The annual subscription doesn’t revolve only around Spotify, there are many other services being involved (instant mastering, email support, editorial playlist pitching, lower commissions, etc.).
Basically if there’s a peak in a audience independent of our willing, Spotify can, at it’s own discretion, consider it as fake streams and will condemn us to a penalty against which there’s no appeal, and the only way to avoid this is to exclude Spotify of the selected platforms during the release of an album?
@Carlos at least how can we avoid this situation again ? how can we prevent or songs to be listened in a way that appear suspicious to Spotify ? how to forbid to be set on playlist ? I have never nor will ever pay a dime to buy streams, this is a terrible injustice against which nothing can be done, I get it, but apart withdrawing from Spotify what can be done ?
Thanks
Update: the May report shows a –9.50 € penalty from Spotify. Could iMusician share the underlying data (tracks, streams, playlists) that this figure refers to?
I can roughly identify suspicious peaks in my own stats, but that is only intuition – not real data, not proof, and certainly not an official accusation. Since I am the one being penalized, I would appreciate receiving the actual data that justifies it.
This is a very serious problem that affects many of us. Is there anything iMusician can do to protect us?
These are clearly mistakes, since most of those affected by the penalties claim to be acting in good faith and maintain they never committed the fraud they are accused of.
You say you understand our frustration, but what are you actually doing about this scandal?
Have you filed an official protest with Spotify to denounce this injustice and this odious practice?
I’ll ask again: how can we control the amount of play our tracks receive, and what solutions do you propose other than removing our tracks from Spotify?
to complete the picture: i already see the penalty on my credit on imusician. i mean: it’s one year i don’t promote my music (i was saving forces for the next album) so i was earning like 1 or 2 euros…now i see - 4,98 as credit, that means that the fee is already paid by me. Am i missing something? is my recostruction wrong?
Got the same problem as you all.
How can we see which track is a problem ? I can’t find anything.
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I recommend you read through Spotify’s official resources on the matter: Artificial Streaming – Spotify for Artists
I’ve already told you that the information that’s at your disposal is the only information we were provided. I understand this is frustrating, but everything we’ve received from Spotify is included in your sales reports.
I have already explained multiple times that our role is limited to communicating you what Spotify tells us. You are welcome to put together a folder with “substantial proof” that your streams are legitimate (Spotify doesn’t provide any instruction or detail on this matter) and we can try to forward it to them for a potential reconsideration. That’s all we can do.
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Hello having the same problem:
- the remember have picthed a song on spotify a few month ago and they listed me in a playlist
- I have not done any marketing or did not subscribe any service.
- this is the second mail I receive from Spotify
Does someone in the community have identified something we can do ?