It is no surprise that streaming numbers, charts and playlists are manipulated all the time in this day and age. This phenomenon of cheating was highlighted especially during the Kendrick-Drake beef, where botting allegations continue to cast doubt on artist reputation aside from straight up monetary profit.
Addressing the problem as a fairness-first platform, Apple Music has come out with increased penalties towards such fraudulent activity. Back in 2023, Apple Music had already claimed to have diminished these practices by 30% after having imposed penalties just a year before.
A conversation The Hollywood Reporter had with Apple Music’s platform chief Oliver Schusser reveals that fines were being imposed on a sliding scale, where penalty ranged from 5% to 25%. Now, after having doubled the imposition, the penalty is anywhere between 10% to 50%.
The report even breaks it down in simpler terms, stating that “…in layman’s terms, if you engage in streaming fraud amounting to say, $1 million, you’d be fined a maximum $500,000.” And of course, the fraudulent streams will not be eligible for monetisation.
“This is a zero-sum game,” says Schusser. “I would like to live in a world where we have zero fraud on the platform, and this has been a very effective tool. Increasing the penalties takes the money from people who are cheating and puts it back into the system for those who aren’t.” The new sanctions seem to be a step in the right direction — what do you think?
