Spotify Shuts Down Fraud Accusations In Newly Released Statement
“We do not and have never created fake artists.”
Spotify unveiling a new ad-based service for mobile and tablet users at a press conference in New York on December 11, 2013
Emmanuel Dunand / Getty Images
“We do not and have never created 'fake' artists and put them on Spotify playlists. Categorically untrue, full stop. We pay royalties—sound and publishing—for all tracks on Spotify, and for everything we playlist. We do not own rights, we’re not a label, all our music is licensed from rightsholders and we pay them—we don’t pay ourselves.”
In one section of the piece, Spotify was accused of "seeding" premium playlists with fake artists in order to save money. The author made the following claim about how the streaming service deceives users: "Spotify is allegedly paying producers to create fake artists whose music can rack up plays without costing the company any more than what they paid up front."
In regards to people gaming the music industry as the title suggests, the spokesperson stated that Spotify has this under control. They added, "As we grow there will always be people who try to game the system. We have a team in place to constantly monitor the service to flag any activity that could be seen as fraudulent or misleading to our users."