A Danish man was sentenced to 18 months in prison today for using a fake account to trick a music streaming service into paying him 2 million Danish kroner ($290,000) in royalties. The unusual case reveals weaknesses in the business model behind the world’s largest music platform.
The 53-year-old consultant, who had pleaded not guilty, was found guilty of data fraud and copyright infringement after using bots to listen to his music through fake profiles on Spotify and Apple Music, collecting royalties in the process. The data fraud occurred between 2013 and 2019.
Fake or “artificial” streams are a big problem in the streaming industry. According to a study by the French National Music Center, there were between 1 and 3 billion fake streams on popular music platforms in 2021. According to the music industry, fake streams are a problem because they divert royalties from real artists and pollute streaming platforms’ data.
“This is an example of a problem that is becoming a burden on the music industry,” said Rasmus Rex Pedersen, an associate professor of communications at Denmark’s Roskilde University who studies music streaming. “Streaming services have spent years developing tools to combat this type of fraud, but clearly they’re not doing a good job.” There are still some services advertising the sale of fake streams, he added.
In February, a court in the Danish city of Aarhus heard the unnamed man was accused of using a bot to mass-stream 689 tracks that he had registered as his own music. In one week, 244 music tracks were listened to 5.5 million times, with 20 accounts accounting for the majority of plays. The defendants had previously argued that the replays were related to their employment in the music industry. His lawyer, Henrik Garlik Jensen, told Wired that he plans to appeal.
Maria Fredenslund, chief executive of the Danish Rights Alliance, which protects Internet copyright, claimed the man developed software that automatically played music and first reported the incident to police. “So he didn’t really listen to the music. No one really listened to the music.” According to the Danish Rights Alliance, the defendant has 69 accounts on music streaming services, including 20 accounts on Spotify alone. Due to his network of accounts, he was at one point ranked the 46th highest-paid musician in Denmark.
Fredenslund, who took the stand, added that while the defendants composed much of the music themselves, 37 of the tracks were modified versions of Danish folk music in which the rhythm and key were changed.
Starting in 2016, Danish artists noticed changes in the versions of their tracks circulating on streaming platforms. They reported the suspicious activity to Koda, a Danish organization that collects and distributes fees to songwriters and composers when their music is streamed online. In an investigation, Korda discovered how amounts paid to advisers could go from zero to large sums in a short period of time. Korda subsequently reported the case to the Danish Rights Alliance, which investigates fraud. “Manipulating remuneration that rightfully belongs to dedicated, hard-working music creators is not only unethical, it is blatantly unfair,” said Jakob Hüttel, head of legal at Koda.