Comment below if you want more videos like this diving into the Spotify Analytics. Also comment below if you want me to cover a new topic that would help you personally 🤘🤘🤘 Cast your vote so your voice can be heard!
The exact same thing happened to me. One of my songs got featured in a playlist generating over 4000 listeners a month from only 2 cities and all very young single listeners (18/22yo who only listen to the song once) My analytics got totally messed up. I contacted the owner of the playlist asking to take my song off which he didn't (it stayed up for more than 2 months). I contacted Spotify who said they couldn't do much. Artists are really the victims here because from the outside it looks like they have used bot playlists...but it was done against their will
Thank you for sharing your story. It's so important to let other artists know that they are not alone in this playlist struggle. I 100% agree, there is nothing an artist can do to control what playlists their music is on - the whole Spotify platform is the wild west.
Same story here, new song ended up on one of these bot lists, messed up the analytics, and is now butchered by the platform algos. Bots are killing Spotify’s credibility!
Excellent video. I needed to hear this. It got me thinking about one of my songs. But I think it’s grown organically. Keep in touch. I want to work with you soon with getting onto playlists.
Thanks for an interesting video! Just something to think about is that just because Spotify for Artists says streams are coming from a specific small city it seems like it doesn't necessarily mean that it is that specific city where the streams actually came from. I kind of confirmed this with my latest song where Spotify for Artist said I had several streams from a small city nearby where I was located. But no streams from where I actually live. My conclusion to this was that the geo locationing isn't always extremely correct and that the streams from the nearby city were actualY the ones from where I lived.
Bit late to this. Think I'm getting similar issues, eveytime I promote a song and get on to playlists I seem to get spam played elsewhere. What's odd is the stats for the playlist look correct, handful of plays every day untill removed, all good. But I also get several hundred plays over a few of days and no idea why. Plays don't show on any playlist but often all from the same country. Any ideas? A playlist being used by robots seems likely by why would they pick up my song for a non public playlist? Really odd!
another thing is regarding my text down below, this guys playlists have a lot of pictures of real followers, that I can click on and they look like real people, no blank pics or anything like that
You can listen to your own music! Totally fine. What I would NOT do is put the song on repeat all night long because that would be against the Spotify TOS which forbids "artificially increasing stream counts."
Hey Ryan. Really enjoying your channel. Learning lots of useful information especially since this is all new to me and I'm close to uploading my first song to Spotify. From what I understood, these human bots & non-human bots can mess up your algorithm. But what are the consequences from them adding you to those playlists? Do you get banned from Spotify or is it that it only skews your analytics? Thank you!
yes, you can get banned. Happened to my daughter and, so far, she has no recourse to appeal. She did not pay for plays but she is being accused of it and they took down all the songs that were affected by the fake plays. All the associated analytics were also removed so she can't even make screen shots to build a case for defense. When she first noticed fake streams she contacted Spotify directly stating that something weird was going on. Spotify said (paraphrasing) "no, you're fine". A few weeks later she received a notice from Distrokid stating that she violated Spotify's TOS and then the songs were promptly removed. Support requests to reinstate have not been successful. To add insult to injury, royalties will also be withheld even though approx 40% of plays were legit. Very distressing. These bad actor companies are affecting people's livelihood and ability to get artist's music heard.
for me it's a little strange. getting 10 % save rate for a few song on a couple playlists. the distribution between other countries is pretty normal looking, spread out across various countries and cities. I'm not getting added to listeners playlists though at all, which makes me wonder. any thoughts on that?
That is very interesting. I know for a fact that save rate can be automated and 10% is extremely high for a playlist. Usually you only get a 10% save rate when you use a heavy direct marketing campaign such as Facebook Ads or an email blast directly to the song-playlists are not very direct and usually don't even come close to 10%. They usually have a save rate around 1-3% for a VERY good playlist and the Spotify Algorithmic Playlists can have an engagement as low as 0.5%. I know this because right now one of my songs is hitting the Spotify Radio Algorithm right now (with no other promotion) and I'm getting only a 0.5% save rate HOWEVER, in addition I'm getting added to over 100 user playlists every 7 days which is ANOTHER form of saving the song (arguably even better). So in a nutshell I think your engagement might be faked if you're not getting added to any listener playlists at all. Spotify scammers are capitalizing on artists idolizing their "save rate" over all else. I usually tell artists that save rate will vary day to day depending on the types of traffic you're sending to your songs and definitely should NOT be idolized as the only goal when promoting. With that said, I would guess with almost complete certainty that you should not have a 10% save rate without ALSO getting tons of personal playlist adds. This doesn't add up to me. I hope my initial impression helps (obviously I haven't seen your data) but I agree, it seems fishy!
So how would we prevent our tracks from randomly getting on these playlists? Already know honestly leads to success but it sounded like that artist randomly got on such a playlist he never wanted to get on in the first place
Your question is excellent and I'll answer it in two parts: 1. I want to make it very clear that the issue here is not simply that he's getting weird streams... the issue is that MOST of his streams are coming from a strange source. If the majority of your streams are coming from bots then you have a real problem. 2. There is nothing you can do to prevent your song getting placed on a playlist without your permission. Spotify is the wild west and there's no way to stop it. What you CAN do is build your audience up so that if you do fall victim to bots, they are in the minority of your stream percentage and they will not throw off your algorithm or analytics. In conclusion, the only defense is a strong offense. Build your fanbase the right way with real people so that bots won't hurt you.
That’s what ppl want to see before they listen to a song. They want to see track with millions of streams before they will hit play... Even their stars bot streams too
Comment below if you want more videos like this diving into the Spotify Analytics. Also comment below if you want me to cover a new topic that would help you personally 🤘🤘🤘 Cast your vote so your voice can be heard!
The exact same thing happened to me. One of my songs got featured in a playlist generating over 4000 listeners a month from only 2 cities and all very young single listeners (18/22yo who only listen to the song once) My analytics got totally messed up. I contacted the owner of the playlist asking to take my song off which he didn't (it stayed up for more than 2 months). I contacted Spotify who said they couldn't do much. Artists are really the victims here because from the outside it looks like they have used bot playlists...but it was done against their will
Thank you for sharing your story. It's so important to let other artists know that they are not alone in this playlist struggle. I 100% agree, there is nothing an artist can do to control what playlists their music is on - the whole Spotify platform is the wild west.
Same story here, new song ended up on one of these bot lists, messed up the analytics, and is now butchered by the platform algos. Bots are killing Spotify’s credibility!
Your videos are so high quality with very nice audio
Thanks so much man
I just got added to one of these playlists... I don't know what the hell to do as I don't see a contact. I didn't apply for it - it just happened.
Would U mind sharing the name of the 3rd party app? If they’re doing scammy stuff they deserve to be outed.
Excellent video. I needed to hear this. It got me thinking about one of my songs. But I think it’s grown organically. Keep in touch. I want to work with you soon with getting onto playlists.
So glad it helped! Sounds good, I'll be here when you're ready!
Thanks for an interesting video! Just something to think about is that just because Spotify for Artists says streams are coming from a specific small city it seems like it doesn't necessarily mean that it is that specific city where the streams actually came from. I kind of confirmed this with my latest song where Spotify for Artist said I had several streams from a small city nearby where I was located. But no streams from where I actually live. My conclusion to this was that the geo locationing isn't always extremely correct and that the streams from the nearby city were actualY the ones from where I lived.
Thanks for sharing that, very helpful to get all these experiences out into the open!
What do you think if the streams have been getting generated through the playlist but my month listeners haven’t increased ?
I have a guy on my ass because I must have led to him getting kicked off of fiver and now, he's purposely sabotaging my Spotify but its only one song.
Bit late to this. Think I'm getting similar issues, eveytime I promote a song and get on to playlists I seem to get spam played elsewhere. What's odd is the stats for the playlist look correct, handful of plays every day untill removed, all good. But I also get several hundred plays over a few of days and no idea why. Plays don't show on any playlist but often all from the same country. Any ideas? A playlist being used by robots seems likely by why would they pick up my song for a non public playlist? Really odd!
another thing is regarding my text down below, this guys playlists have a lot of pictures of real followers, that I can click on and they look like real people, no blank pics or anything like that
The top distributors work hand in hand That’s why they can do what they did to you
Thnx for making it clear that we musicians do need 'real' listeners!
Awesome video, just epic. Thank you for this. Likely, at House Poetry Global we don't promote or even dream of using these kinds of tactics.
Hi Ryan, Are you allowed to listen to your own songs on Spotify or is this considered to be against the rules?
You can listen to your own music! Totally fine. What I would NOT do is put the song on repeat all night long because that would be against the Spotify TOS which forbids "artificially increasing stream counts."
@@IndieMusicAcademy Hi Ryan, thanks very much for your prompt and helpful reply.
great video my man ,explained in a nice simple manner
How do I choose the right non bot option on Submithub and Playlist push? Are bot based guys in there?
I’m trying to find this song on Spotify to listen and I can’t.
Hey Ryan. Really enjoying your channel. Learning lots of useful information especially since this is all new to me and I'm close to uploading my first song to Spotify. From what I understood, these human bots & non-human bots can mess up your algorithm. But what are the consequences from them adding you to those playlists? Do you get banned from Spotify or is it that it only skews your analytics? Thank you!
yes, you can get banned. Happened to my daughter and, so far, she has no recourse to appeal. She did not pay for plays but she is being accused of it and they took down all the songs that were affected by the fake plays. All the associated analytics were also removed so she can't even make screen shots to build a case for defense. When she first noticed fake streams she contacted Spotify directly stating that something weird was going on. Spotify said (paraphrasing) "no, you're fine". A few weeks later she received a notice from Distrokid stating that she violated Spotify's TOS and then the songs were promptly removed. Support requests to reinstate have not been successful. To add insult to injury, royalties will also be withheld even though approx 40% of plays were legit. Very distressing. These bad actor companies are affecting people's livelihood and ability to get artist's music heard.
for me it's a little strange. getting 10 % save rate for a few song on a couple playlists. the distribution between other countries is pretty normal looking, spread out across various countries and cities. I'm not getting added to listeners playlists though at all, which makes me wonder. any thoughts on that?
That is very interesting. I know for a fact that save rate can be automated and 10% is extremely high for a playlist. Usually you only get a 10% save rate when you use a heavy direct marketing campaign such as Facebook Ads or an email blast directly to the song-playlists are not very direct and usually don't even come close to 10%. They usually have a save rate around 1-3% for a VERY good playlist and the Spotify Algorithmic Playlists can have an engagement as low as 0.5%. I know this because right now one of my songs is hitting the Spotify Radio Algorithm right now (with no other promotion) and I'm getting only a 0.5% save rate HOWEVER, in addition I'm getting added to over 100 user playlists every 7 days which is ANOTHER form of saving the song (arguably even better).
So in a nutshell I think your engagement might be faked if you're not getting added to any listener playlists at all. Spotify scammers are capitalizing on artists idolizing their "save rate" over all else. I usually tell artists that save rate will vary day to day depending on the types of traffic you're sending to your songs and definitely should NOT be idolized as the only goal when promoting. With that said, I would guess with almost complete certainty that you should not have a 10% save rate without ALSO getting tons of personal playlist adds. This doesn't add up to me.
I hope my initial impression helps (obviously I haven't seen your data) but I agree, it seems fishy!
@@IndieMusicAcademy hey thanks for your thoughts on this. That all makes sense to me
So how would we prevent our tracks from randomly getting on these playlists? Already know honestly leads to success but it sounded like that artist randomly got on such a playlist he never wanted to get on in the first place
Your question is excellent and I'll answer it in two parts:
1. I want to make it very clear that the issue here is not simply that he's getting weird streams... the issue is that MOST of his streams are coming from a strange source. If the majority of your streams are coming from bots then you have a real problem.
2. There is nothing you can do to prevent your song getting placed on a playlist without your permission. Spotify is the wild west and there's no way to stop it. What you CAN do is build your audience up so that if you do fall victim to bots, they are in the minority of your stream percentage and they will not throw off your algorithm or analytics.
In conclusion, the only defense is a strong offense. Build your fanbase the right way with real people so that bots won't hurt you.
Awesome really appreciate it!😃
Hi Ryan! Thanks for the cool vid. Weird, I am the first viewer! Your audio is much better than average.
Thanks John! The rode ntg3b is a really great mic! I'm still getting used to it but I'm really happy with the sound too!
@@IndieMusicAcademy Very clean and natural. I want to get a few Rodes in the future, especially the ambisonic.
I learned much from this blog
Thanks for your video. I recently ended up on this playlist. How do i get off it?
I took my son down from Spotify. Hopefully I can put back soon.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing this information.
Glad you enjoyed it
Thank you Ryan
Pleasee I’m an artist and I love it if you help me get to a legit playlister
You reckon this is what Musicvertising do? 😅😂🤣 because i've got 237 saves from 61 listeners what percentage is that???
That’s what ppl want to see before they listen to a song. They want to see track with millions of streams before they will hit play... Even their stars bot streams too
You want to earn something it needs to be Hip Hop or POP.Real music doesn't brink money any more..
It all depends on how you monetize.