This video provides a summary of the issues and scams prevalent in the music streaming industry, particularly for independent artists.
- The Problem with Bots: The video explains how bots are used to inflate stream counts, which dilutes the earnings for legitimate artists in a communal fund system. It also shows how bots can be used to maliciously get another artist’s music removed from platforms.
- Content ID and Royalty-Free Loops: The creator demonstrates a scam where individuals use common royalty-free loops to create new songs, then use Content ID to claim copyright on any other song that uses the same loops.
- Playlist Promotion Scams: The video highlights the prevalence of email scams from “promotion services” that promise to boost an artist’s music on targeted playlists for a fee, which are often fraudulent.
- Fake Collaborations: It discusses the rise of fake collaborations, where scammers tag popular artists to get their music on the release radar of the tagged artist’s followers without their consent.
- Impersonation and AI: The video highlights the problem of people uploading music to an artist’s official, verified profile and the difficulty of getting it removed. It also delves into the future problem of AI tools that can clone an artist’s voice to create fake music.
- Call to Action: The video concludes with a call for distribution services and streaming platforms to implement basic security measures, like email notifications and authenticator apps, to protect artists from these scams.