Always be wary of fraudsters, especially on streaming platforms (online music) since they break out where you least expect them. The lapping of rain, the chirping of birds, the buzzing of hair dryers or even the roar of a lawnmower are among the music – even noises – that are the subject of the greatest number of financial misappropriations.
The very first “fake streams” were detected at Deezer in 2013. Since then, the platform has tracked free riders who artificially attempt to increase online listening by individuals or robots. They seek to generate financial revenue by inflating the market share of a piece of music to obtain more royalties – or wish to improve the performance of a title in a chart, or even direct a recommendation system (playlist, research…).
“Fraud is constantly evolving and improving,” assures Ludovic Pouilly, director of institutional relations and relations with the music industry of Deezer. The meshes of the landing net may have tightened over the years, but the imagination of fraudsters adapts. “It’s an endless fight” he observes.
Based in Paris, Deezer, whose main shareholder, at 37%, is the American investment fund Access Industries, of the billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, suffered a resounding failure when it went public in July 2022 and its price has still not returned to its IPO level. This little Thumb, next to the world leader Spotify, is however the only platform to reveal the mysteries of its fight against fraud. Its teams identified, in 2022, 0.6% of suspicious users and 6.7% of fake streams. Categorized as such, they are not the object of royalties (payment of the artists) and nor of integration in the playlists.
Malpractice specialists
In January, the National Music Center (CNM) published a study, the first of its kind, on this “real phenomenon”, noting very disruptive effects on the music market, such as “the drop in the unit value of a stream, and therefore the correct remuneration of the other rights holders”. But also the alteration of the algorithmic profiles of the artists. As for subscribers, they may fear that their accounts will be hacked and wonder about the relevance of the suggested listening recommendations. This study in which Deezer, Qobuz and Spotify participated – unlike Apple Music and Amazon Music – concluded that there were 1% to 3% of fraudulent streams, i.e. 1 billion to 3 billion in 2021 in France alone.
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