![]() Digital marketers say that some companies set up programs to automatically generate thousands of new, bot-like accounts that repeatedly play a song or playlist. This activity doesn’t just lead to artificial inflation of streams (and egos). Other number-fudging techniques are more advanced. “We’re good we just need performance-enhancing steroids to be a little bit better.” “We agree to a certain amount of money for a certain amount of streams,” says one A&R at a prominent label. (Though unlike payola, there is no Federal Communications Commission regulation of streaming manipulation.) ![]() They praise “save rates” (a valuable sign of listener investment that occurs when a user hears a song and adds it to their personal library or playlist) and “premium” plays (these come from paying subscribers and are weighted more heavily in the charts than clicks from free users), and often use terms like “activate the algorithm.”īut despite the new vocabulary, digital marketers say that some streaming manipulation resembles old-school radio payola: Third parties build or gain control of playlists or networks of playlists on a platform like Spotify and then accept payment from artists or their teams for placing songs in those lists. To the uninitiated, people who work in streaming promotion might as well speak another language. In a sales deck obtained by Rolling Stone, Mack’s company 3BMD says it helps with “streaming playlist PR,” “social media PR,” and “music audio PR,” among other things. And as streaming has become the music industry’s primary driver, many of the manipulation efforts have moved to the digital sphere, where Mack focuses his services. “I want this to be big,” one member of G-Eazy’s team says on the call.Įvery Awful Thing Trump Has Promised to Do in a Second TermĪttempts by artists and record labels to “manipulate” sales numbers are as old as the music industry itself. Two of Blueprint’s CEOs, Gee Roberson and Jean Nelson, the head of digital strategy, Bryan Calhoun, and the chief marketing officer, Al Branch, explored options for boosting an upcoming release from rapper G-Eazy, an artist they manage. ![]() ![]() Not long after the code of conduct was signed, various members of the Blueprint Group - a high-powered management and distribution company that works with multiple Grammy-winning artists - hopped on a conference call with a digital marketer named Joshua Mack, according to an audio recording obtained by Rolling Stone. “There is a black market for pay-for-play.” “Streaming manipulation has been an unfortunate blight on the industry over the past few years,” declared John Phelan, director general of the International Confederation of Music Publishers. The music industry is famous for being hyper-competitive, but in the summer of 2019, the biggest companies - from major labels to streaming services - briefly united around a common cause: signing a code of conduct condemning streaming manipulation, a practice that inflates artists’ numbers on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music and potentially reduces payouts for smaller acts. ![]()
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