A recently filed lawsuit accuses Spotify of allowing Drake to accumulate billions of fraudulent streams. The suit alleges that Spotify knowingly ignored activity from bots that artificially increased Drake’s stream count and, consequently, his earnings.
According to a complaint initially reported by Rolling Stone, Spotify calculates artist payments based on their proportion of total streams. This system means that if someone artificially increases an artist’s stream count, that artist receives a larger share of the royalties, reducing the amount available for other artists.
The lawsuit claims that the use of bots to artificially inflate streaming numbers is common on Spotify, and specifically points to Drake as one example. It alleges Spotify has significant evidence – or should have known – that a large portion of Drake’s approximately 37 billion streams were fake, generated by a widespread bot network.
According to a recent filing, Spotify sees billions of fake streams every month. This widespread fraud harms real musicians, songwriters, and producers. The filing alleges that this fake activity boosted revenue for Drake and his company, Frozen Moments, and that Spotify knowingly allowed it to happen for financial benefit.
Spotify refuted that idea in a statement.
A Spotify representative stated the company can’t discuss ongoing legal cases. However, they emphasized that Spotify doesn’t profit from artificial streaming—the practice of inflating stream counts—and actively works to prevent it. They invest in tools to identify and remove fake streams, withhold payments for those streams, and issue penalties to those involved.
VPNs, odd streaming patterns, and round-the-clock listening
The lawsuit claims that automated activity, or “botting,” happened between January 2022 and September 2025. It highlights unusual VPN activity used to hide the source of streams, and specifically mentions a four-day stretch in 2024 where over 250,000 streams of Drake’s song “No Face” appeared to originate in the UK, but were actually coming from Turkey.
The lawsuit alleges that a small group of accounts – less than 2% of total users – generated around 15% of Drake’s streams. These accounts were often concentrated in areas with few residents, and some reportedly played his song “23 hours a day.”
The lawsuit claims that the Degrassi: The Next Generation actor’s numbers were higher than those of other popular artists, even though fewer individual fans were listening, which points to an unusual amount of automated activity.
These accusations come as other platforms are dealing with similar problems. Twitch, for example, has been struggling with claims of inflated viewer numbers – where fake viewers are used to artificially boost certain channels in rankings, which disadvantages genuine content creators.
The case was dismissed shortly after Drake was also implicated in another lawsuit. This second suit is a class-action claiming he illegally promoted the online gambling platforms Stake and Kick with streamer Adin Ross.
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2025-11-03 20:20