Imposters are making as much as $10K in royalties at a time by uploading copyright-infringing content to streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music

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How Artist Imposters and Fake Songs Sneak Onto Streaming Services

 

When songs leak on Spotify and Apple Music, illegal uploads can generate substantial royalty payments—but for whom?

 

 

Last December, new music from Beyoncé and SZA appeared out of nowhere on Spotify and Apple Music. Released under the names “Queen Carter” and “Sister Solana” respectively, these full-length projects initially seemed like surprise drops with a twist. Soon fans realized that something wasn’t right: Many of the Beyoncé recordings came from old sessions, and the SZA songs sounded like unfinished demos, which the singer later confirmed. Neither Beyoncé nor SZA had anything to do with the releases, in fact. It wasn’t the first time a big artist’s music had been uploaded illegally to Spotify and Apple Music, and it wouldn’t be the last.

 

In the most troubling of these scenarios, fake releases have actually crept up the streaming charts. In March 2019, when a fake Rihanna album called Angel was uploaded to iTunes and Apple Music under the name “Fenty Fantasia,” it made it as far as No. 67 on the iTunes worldwide albums chart before being yanked off the platform. Then, in May, a leak of Playboi Carti and Young Nudy’s “Pissy Pamper / Kid Cudi” was uploaded to Spotify as “Kid Carti,” under the artist name “Lil Kambo.” Two million-plus streams later, “Kid Carti” topped the service’s U.S. Viral 50 chart before being removed. Ironically, “Pissy Pamper / Kid Cudi” was never released officially because of sample clearance issues involving Mai Yamane, whose 1980 song “Tasogare” serves as the basis for its beat. None of the involved artists—Yamane, Carti, Nudy—ultimately saw a dime from streams of the song.

 

The related artists on Lil Kambo’s page revealed even more Playboi Carti leakers, as well as “artists” who were masquerading as Juice WRLD and Lil Uzi Vert. Given the prevalence of such impersonators, it came as no surprise when “Pissy Pamper / Kid Cudi” made its way up the Spotify Viral chart again, under a different name, a month after the first fake was removed. Before the end of June, five more unreleased Playboi Carti tracks appeared on the rapper’s official Apple Music page. Fans celebrated the leaks, which made headlines on Genius and The Fader before being removed the following day. 

Suspicious bootlegs and fraudulent uploads are nothing new in digital music, but the problem has infiltrated paid streaming services in unexpected and troubling ways. Artists face the possibility of impersonators uploading fake music to their official profiles, stolen music being uploaded under false monikers, and of course, simple human error resulting in botched uploads. Meanwhile, keen fans have figured out where they can find illegally uploaded, purposefully mistitled songs in user playlists. 

 

Here’s how the process works: Artists who use independent distribution companies such as DistroKid or TuneCore get paid royalties for their streams and typically cash out via services like PayPal. TuneCore states that their royalty calculations typically operate on a two-month delay, while DistroKid has a three-month delay on payments, meaning that royalties accrued from streams in January may not be available to cash out until March or April. Distribution companies generally stipulate that users must agree not to distribute copyrighted content that they do not own, and streaming services similarly specify that copyright-infringing content is not allowed. However, it’s easy for leakers to simply lie and upload infringing music, which may or may not be caught by the distributors’ fraud prevention methods. By abusing the limited oversight in the digital supply chain, it’s possible that leakers can make significant amounts of money off music they have zero rights to. 

 

One leaker told Pitchfork that they were paid upwards of $60,000 in royalties this year by DistroKid and TuneCore, after uploading unreleased tracks by artists including Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert onto Spotify and Apple Music. The leaker, who spoke under the condition of anonymity and provided transaction records in addition to withdrawal confirmations from distributors, said that they released the songs in order to please “eager fans” of the artists. And while much of the music was later removed, the documents viewed by Pitchfork indicate that royalties were still paid out, as much as $10,000 at a time. 

Pitchfork reached out to representatives at DistroKid, TuneCore, Spotify, and Apple Music for comment regarding the possibility of royalties generated by copyright-infringing music being paid to an illegal uploader. 

 

A spokesperson for Spotify said: 

We take the protection of creators’ intellectual property extremely seriously and do not tolerate the distribution of content without rightsholder permission. As with any large digital services platform, there are individuals who attempt to game the system. We continue to invest heavily in refining our processes and improving methods of tackling this issue.

TuneCore Chief Communications Officer Jonathan Gardner said:

In addition to subjecting all uploaded material to a detailed content review process before it is delivered to any digital music service, it is also TuneCore’s policy to respond expeditiously to remove or disable access to any material which is claimed to infringe copyrighted material and which was posted online using the TuneCore service. By agreeing to TuneCore’s Terms of Service, each user also agrees, among other things, that, in the event that TuneCore is presented with a claim of infringement, TuneCore may freeze any and all revenues in the user’s account that are received in connection with the disputed material. While we cannot comment on any specific claims, we can say that TuneCore is committed to preventing our services from being used in connection with infringing or otherwise deceptive behavior.

DistroKid founder and CEO Philip Kaplan did not directly address the claims and instead offered this:

DistroKid recently launched DistroLock, which is an industry-wide solution to help stop unauthorized releases. Any artist, label, or studio can register their music with DistroLock, for free, to preemptively block it from being released by distributors and music services. We made DistroLock available for free to our competitors and other music services because by working together, we can help protect legitimate artists from fraud and infringement.

When reached by Pitchfork, a representative for Apple Music declined to comment.

 

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