SPOTIFY DENIES GAMING ITS OWN SYSTEM

A 7/5 detailed Vulture expose headlined “The Streaming Problem: How Spammers, Superstars and Tech Giants Gamed the Music Industry,” alleging illicit activities taking place on Spotify—some of the deception initiated by the service itself—resulted in a vehement denial by a Spotify rep on Saturday.

Interestingly, the statement was emailed on Saturday not to Vulture but to the Bible. It read: “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.”

A similar accusation previously appeared 10 months ago on MBW under the headline, “Spotify Is Making Its Own Records… And Putting Them on Playlists,” attributing it to “multiple cast-iron sources.” But it failed to get traction—until now.