A close look at Spotify’s latest bot purge and its unexpected fallout.
Spotify artists are seeing a big drop in their follower counts as the streaming giant does a widespread purge of bot accounts. The move is part of Spotify’s ongoing work to fight fake activity on the platform. But, some users say they’ve been wrongly caught in the crossfire.
Spotify’s Battle Against Fake Followers and Streams
In a statement to artists, Spotify stressed the importance of keeping a “representative” follower metric that shows “real fans.”
This isn’t new. Spotify has been trying to purge suspected bot accounts since April 27, 2020. Since then, the company has begun removing all follows from accounts already marked as “artificial” and deactivating or deleting them.
“When a listener follows your artist profile on Spotify, you are added to the listener’s artist library, new releases will be featured in their Release Radar, and it’s a signal to our algorithm that they want to hear more from you.” says Spotify.
“As a result, of course, it’s really important that the follower metric is representative of real fans so you understand the true breadth of your follower base. In light of this, we’ll be removing all follows from artificial user accounts to artist profiles. An artificial user account is one we’ve previously flagged and deactivated or deleted from our platform.”
However, this is an ongoing battle.
Spotify regularly checks its service for bot followers, fake streams, and other forms of fakery that can hurt real artists. The recent reports of follower count drops may mean that Spotify has recently done another batch of purging in line with this.
For example, one artist noticed that he dropped 63 followers in one day without doing anything.
Another artist, who wished to remain anonymous, also reported a sudden drop in followers. This happened after their track was added to a suspected bot playlist without their knowledge.
“A few months ago, I had a track that was clearly added to a botted playlist (WAVR.AI) without my knowledge. And, I ended up getting something like 1000 plays on the track in a day and 100 followers, according to my artist stats.” he says.
“I figured this was fake and, as my suspicion confirmed, I noticed those 100 followers were removed when I looked at my artist data today.”
The Consequences for Artists and Playlists Involved
Spotify has strict ways to find suspicious streaming activity. Artists or playlists thought to be buying followers or artificially boosting streams may face serious results, including not getting paid.
The company warns against using any service promising to increase followers for a fee, as these often use bots. Artists may see an increase in followers upon purchase.
However, Spotify guarantees that these will be detected and removed within days or months after they are added.
Unfortunately, if you’ve noticed your music has been added to a playlist that you think is using fake streams, there’s not much you can do.
Spotify often sweeps free accounts to see if they are real users or not. You may suddenly lose several hundred followers if your music is the target of a bot playlist.
While removing bot accounts won’t change real data like stream counts, playlist adds, or track saves, artists may see a temporary sharp drop in counts while Spotify updates. This small bug usually fixes itself within hours.
“Don’t worry: this won’t impact your stream counts, user library playlist adds, Spotify for Artists historical data, or track saves.” says Spotify.
“It has no bearing on your relationship with Spotify whatsoever. It will simply reduce the number of the number of artificial user accounts following you. If you notice a slight dip in followers, this is the reason.”
Reports of Wrongful Account Suspensions
However, some users claim they’ve been unfairly targeted in the bot purge. This means some of the removed follower accounts may not be bots at all.
For one, a user named ‘Pixroit’ reported that their 5-year-old account was suddenly closed. He received a message from Spotify saying it was because of terms against selling accounts or playlists.
“I’ve never done such a thing and was really shocked when I received this. I tried to contact customer support, but they closed the communication without explaining anything.” he shares.
“I was really devastated by their response. They just don’t care. I spent 5 years building my playlists and liked list, and now it’s all gone. I literally cried. I didn’t notice I was so dependent on Spotify.”
They have now switched to Apple Music and find the experience great so far. However, he advises others to periodically request personal data from Spotify to avoid a similar situation.
Another user has also reported having their account possibly hacked and used for fake streams. This was discovered when he saw that his Spotify account kept playing the same unknown artist without him clicking on it.