“Billions of Fake Streams”: Spotify Faces Explosive New Fraud Scandal

“Billions of Fraudulent Streams”: Spotify at the Heart of a New Scandal

1. The Lawsuit That Rocked the Stream-World

On 2 November 2025, California rapper RBX (Eric Dwayne Collins) filed a federal class-action complaint accusing Spotify of “knowingly permitting” massive, bot-driven streaming fraud that artificially boosted the numbers of the platform’s most-listened-to artist, Drake. The suit claims “billions” of Drake’s ~37 billion plays between January 2022 and September 2025 were fake, generated by “a sprawling network of Bot Accounts” that used VPNs to mask locations and streamed from “areas with zero residential addresses”.

2. Why Drake? The Numbers That Raised Eyebrows

According to data cited in the filing, one Drake track alone, “No Face”, racked up 250,000 plays in four days in 2024, all geo-mapped through Turkish VPN exit nodes to the UK. Analysts also noted “abnormally slow decay curves”: months after release, Drake songs were still gaining millions of streams per week while comparable tracks from peer artists plateaued. The suit stresses Drake is not accused of wrong-doing; rather, Spotify is singled out for failing to police its own ecosystem.

3. How the Pro-Rata Pot Gets Emptied

Spotify pays royalties from a single global pool. Every fake stream dilutes the percentage owed to legitimate artists. Industry studies estimate fraudulent plays at 1–3 % in France and up to 10 % worldwide, siphoning as much as $3 billion a year from the royalty pot. RBX argues that even a 1 % swing caused by one megastar equals hundreds of millions in lost payouts for smaller rights-holders.

4. Spotify’s Defence: “We Are the Victim, Not the Beneficiary”

A company spokesperson told Rolling Stone that Spotify “in no way benefits” from artificial streaming and has invested in “best-in-class systems” that remove fake plays, withhold royalties and levy penalties. The firm points to last year’s U.S. indictment of North Carolina musician Michael Smith, whose AI-generated tracks and 10,000 bot accounts allegedly netted $10 million—of which only $60,000 came from Spotify, proof, says the company, that its defences work.

5. Window-Dressing or Systemic Neglect?

Plaintiffs counter that Spotify’s anti-fraud measures are “nothing more than window dressing, inadequate at best”. They claim the platform has a perverse incentive to tolerate inflated user numbers: the higher the monthly active user (MAU) count, the more ads Spotify can sell and the higher its stock price climbs.

6. Ripple Effects – A&R, Playlists, Charts

Labels privately admit that playlist editors sometimes notice suspicious spikes yet keep tracks live because high streaming counts drive algorithmic placement. Billboard’s global 200 chart, which feeds radio scheduling and touring metrics, is not immune: at least three Drake tracks re-entered the survey months after peak on the back of late-stage surges now questioned in court.

7. What Happens Next – Damages, Discovery, Diplomacy

The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages for every rights-holder in the class, potentially covering hundreds of thousands of songwriters and artists. Discovery could force Spotify to open its server logs, revealing internal e-mails on bot detection thresholds. Analysts predict a settlement north of $200 million to avoid precedent-setting disclosure.

8. The Bigger Picture – Is Streaming Fraud Solvable?

Beatdapp estimates 10 % of all global streams are fake; even France’s Centre National de la Musique puts the floor at 1 %. With generative AI now able to mass-produce plausible songs in minutes, the fraud surface is exploding. Unless platforms shift from pro-rata to user-centric payouts—where your subscription is split only among artists you actually play—bot farmers will always find an economic rationale.

Conclusion

The RBX lawsuit may be the loudest alarm yet that the current streaming economy rewards scale over safety. If courts decide Spotify looked the other way while bots partied at the royalty buffet, the financial reckoning—and the reputational hit—could reshape how the entire industry counts a “listen”.

Sources

• NBC News – Spotify sued over alleged fraudulent Drake streams, 2025-11-03
  

• The Hollywood Reporter – Spotify Sued Over Billions of ‘Fraudulent’ Drake Streams, 2025-11-03
  

• Yahoo News – New lawsuit alleges Spotify allows streaming fraud, 2025-11-04
  

• Forbes – Spotify Accused Of Ignoring ‘Billions’ Of Fraudulent Drake Streams, 2025-11-03
  

• Rolling Stone – Lawsuit Against Spotify Claims ‘Billions’ of Drake Streams Are Fraudulent, 2025-11-03