Why Spotify Removes Artist's Music? The Ugly Truth!
Warning: By the end of this article you may be pissed 😠
If you’re reading this, you may have had your music removed from Spotify or are worried that it might happen. A week ago, an artist we’ll call Tom reached out to us with a dilemma. He said that 134 of his songs were removed from the platform for “artificial streaming.” Like you, I initially thought he might have been involved in some promotional activities. However, Tom granted us access to his Spotify for Artists account, and the data showed that he had been releasing music consistently every few weeks for about FIVE YEARS! Tom is 65 years old and had no idea you could pay someone to promote music. He averaged 20 streams per day for five years, his biggest stream day was 30 streams in 1 day! with no spikes, playlist ads, or anything that looked artificial. Yet, he received an email from Spotify stating, “We detected artificial streams and have removed your music from Spotify.”
I don’t know Tom personally and have never worked with him, but this situation really bothered me. How could someone who posted music consistently for five years without any promotions have their music taken down? I had to find out why.
After a deep dive and multiple conversations with Spotify support representatives, I discovered the reasons why a song might be removed. Of course, the primary reason is bots, which often come from being unknowingly added to a playlist curated by individuals, not Spotify. Even if these playlists seem legitimate and well-established, there’s a high chance they use bots to boost streams. Think about it — how many non-Spotify playlists do you stream? Everyone I asked only streams playlists created by Spotify.
But Tom didn’t do this. And perhaps some of you reading this weren’t added to any playlists or were simply doing legitimate promotions with ads or telling friends to stream your music, only to receive a warning from Spotify about detected artificial streams. What exactly did they detect?
Here are four things Spotify looks for, according to their representatives:
- Low saves: This could indicate bot-generated streams that don’t result in saves. Conversely, having too many saves can also be suspicious. (WTF? This seems contradictory, doesn’t it?)
- High skip rates: Too many skips on songs can be a red flag. On the other hand, a low skip rate can also raise suspicion. (Again, a contradiction!)
- Inconsistent streaming patterns: Streams that fluctuate too much or remain too steady can both be problematic. (Notice a pattern?)
- Streams per listener: Too many or too few streams per listener can trigger Spotify’s detection algorithms.
What can we learn from this? Spotify’s criteria for detecting artificial streams appear inconsistent and contradictory. I feel bad for Tom and all the other upcoming artists who follow the rules but still face issues. Therefore, I offer to help you get your music back on Spotify and restore your streams to their original numbers at no cost. Just reach out to me on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/geek_marketing2020/
