How streaming fraud works and how to detect it – and how your streaming numbers may have been boosted by scammers

Music Ally Focus Ep. #74: "We confidently say that at least 10% of all streaming activity is fraud," – that's the opinion of Andrew Batey and Morgan Hayduk of Beatdapp, the streaming analysis platform that aims to uncover streaming fraud. We find out what the fraud looks like, how big it is, who’s doing it and why, how it works … and how much it would cost if we wanted to be the fraudsters. The answers will probably surprise you, and – if you’re an artist – you may be shocked to find that your streaming numbers have been inflated by scammers too.

Streaming fraud is complex: it’s clear that there is an incentive for people to game the system - siphoning money away from real artists. You might think that it’s simply a case of artists juicing their numbers to look more impressive. But there’s also a bigger, more complex picture and Andrew and Morgan explain how they find patterns of use that are indications of streaming fraud. 

Beatdapp's blog post on the "whac-a-mole" nature of stopping streaming fraud: blog.beatdapp.com/2022/05/whac-a-mole-part-2-return-of-the-whac

Beatdapp: beatdapp.com

Superman 3’s fraction-of-a-penny scheme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7JBXGkBoFc

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