THE MUSIC BLOG

A dynamic music blog offering tips and advice for bands, featuring discussions on Spotify, social media, fan growth, and collaborations.

Just some random thoughts and ideas I've been kicking around. I figured I'd share them here in case anyone else finds them interesting. Let me know what you think! (Comments can be left at the bottom of this page)

If you like the free, hand-curated work, feel free to buy me a beer to keep it all going. (No company, no pitching tool, no bots, no AI. Just me.) Your donation will help me keep this service running and growing.

 Jan 18, 2025

Bot-infested playlists: A threat to independent artists on Spotify

Many bands on platforms like Reddit and Spotify's community forums are reporting a growing concern: their songs are being added to bot-driven playlists without their knowledge. These playlists often have an inordinate number of followers and plays, but the artists featured have relatively few listeners of their own. This discrepancy raises red flags, as it suggests that the plays are being artificially inflated by bots rather than genuine fans.  

How to identify a bot-driven playlist:

• Inflated saves: Playlists with incredibly high save counts (often exceeding 10,000 or 20,000) but featuring artists with very few listeners.
• Lack of follower engagement: Playlist creators have few followers, and those followers often lack profile pictures.
• Minimal online presence: The playlist curator has no social media presence or website.
• Absence from "Discovered In" section: The playlist doesn't appear in the "Discovered In" section of the featured artists' profiles.
• Suspicious playlist titles: Titles like "Hot songs," "Best hits," or "Top 40 songs" are common among bot-driven playlists.
• Dubious curator names: Past examples include WAVR.ai, Artist republic, Artist global, and chartmob. Even when Spotify removes a bot-driven playlist, new ones quickly emerge.

Using Chartmetric to identify suspicious playlists:

Chartmetric allows users to analyze top playlists and filter for independent curators. By examining metrics like follower count, playlist growth, and profile information, users can identify a significant number of suspicious playlists. For instance, a playlist created by a user named "Sandra W." in the punk genre has nearly 90,000 saves but the curator has no followers, raising serious doubts about its authenticity.  

How to recognize if your song has been added to a bot-driven playlist:

• Sudden spike in streams: If your song experiences an unexpected surge in streams, especially from unusual locations, it may have been added to a bot-driven playlist.
• Geographic anomalies: A high number of streams from cities like Helsinki, Buffalo, Frankfurt, or Piscataway, NJ, can be indicative of bot activity. Similarly, an unusually high number of streams from Los Angeles for an artist from a different region can be suspicious.  
• Unrelated artists in "Fans Also Like" sections: The appearance of unrelated artists in this section can signal bot manipulation.

What to do:

• Avoid spinning DistroKid's "wheel" feature: This feature can lead to your music being added to questionable playlists.
• Don't pay for playlist placements: Purchasing playlist placements often results in your music being added to irrelevant and bot-driven playlists.
• Contact Spotify, your Spotify provider and seek community support: If your music has already been added to a bot-driven playlist, reach out to your Spotify provider (like Distrokid) and seek advice from online communities.

Key takeaways:

• Building a playlist's audience takes time and effort. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
• Spotify prioritizes its own playlists in search results. The only way for independent curators to build a fanbase and get likes is through their own website, forums, and social media.
• Be wary of playlists with an unusually high number of saves and low engagement.
• Stay informed about the latest tactics used by bot operators.

Additional resources:

Hypebot, a platform that has been chronicling the music industry since 2004, offers a detailed analysis of the bot issue in this piece

Note: While the risk of being added to a bot-driven playlist is relatively low for genres like shoegaze and punk, it's still important to be vigilant.

There are numerous other websites and blogs that delve into this topic in great detail, seriously and independently. I encourage you to do your own research. However, be wary of so-called 'information sites' offered by pitching services that make unrealistic promises such as 'guaranteed streams from real listeners'. Any services promising guaranteed streams or playlist placements are likely scams.

 Jan 11, 2025

Imagine you're a new or relatively band with great music that you want as many people as possible to hear. To achieve this, you need curious music enthusiasts/ fans, who follow you on Spotify and various social media channels. For this reason, "Spotify for Artists" offers a setting in the biography where you can link your own social media presence. This allows people to click directly on the artist in the Spotify biography and follow them on Instagram, Facebook, or X. Networking and direct communication with fans is essential, not only for streaming and promoting your music, but also for announcing concerts, selling tickets, merchandise, and physical releases.

The matter should be pretty clear by now. The better the networking and connection with fans, the greater the likelihood of organic growth and popularity.

Why some bands ignore this approach is a mystery to me. There are Spotify profiles with no links to social media, even though a social media presence exists. There are tons of broken links that lead to non-existent social media pages when clicked.

And then there's this particular case, which is surprisingly often observed in Germany: Bands don't allow themselves to be mentioned on Instagram at all: "This account cannot receive your message because it only accepts messages from certain people" or "You cannot send a message to this account," is then displayed as a message on Instagram. Seriously? You have music and you want it to be shared in stories and posts, you want to communicate with fans - and then you refuse? I can maybe understand this for big, well-known bands that might be flooded with messages. But as a small band with maybe a few hundred or even a few thousand followers, this approach and this attitude is completely incomprehensible to me.

Therefore, it's very important to:

• Utilize Spotify for Artists: Ensure that all links are correct and use all available fields in your biography.
• Make Your Instagram Account Public: Allow fans to message you and interact with your content.
• Share Regularly: Consistently share new music, concert announcements, behind-the-scenes content, and more.
• Engage with Fans: Respond to comments and messages from your followers.
• Use Relevant Hashtags: Increase your reach by using relevant hashtags.
• Network with Other Bands: Collaborations can help both bands gain new fans
• Repost: Please ensure that when you repost stories, the original links within them remain clickable.

 Jan 8, 2025

Ghosts Everywhere: Streaming platforms, particularly Spotify, are becoming increasingly inundated with AI-generated artists—bands and musicians that don't actually exist. A growing number of mysterious artists on Spotify, regardless of the musical genre, are shrouded in obscurity. According to a recent investigation by Harper's, a US culture magazine, there's a "systematic program" at Spotify called "Perfect Fit Content" (PIT).

The report suggests that PIT is a "sophisticated system" Spotify employs to "inject cheaply produced music into its most popular playlists." A former Spotify employee, as quoted by the German news outlet "BR 24 Netzwelt," described this as "music that we profited from financially." Spotify collaborates with a network of production companies that mass-produce this "ghost music." Furthermore, Spotify's playlist curators were reportedly encouraged to include these low-cost, AI-generated tracks in their curated lists.

For Spotify, bands like Jet Fuel & The Ginger Ales, boasting over 45,000 monthly listeners, pose no issue. Despite their popularity, any attempt to find information about this band on Spotify, social media, or elsewhere is futile. They simply don't exist. And, frankly, they're unnecessary. Their artist profiles are filled with cheaply generated, uninspired cover versions that are utterly boring and lacking in any artistic merit.

This proliferation of ghost music poses a significant threat, especially to lesser-known bands. With the distribution system already skewed in favor of megastars, artists now face the added challenge of competing with AI-generated content for coveted playlist spots and audience attention.

To counter this trend, I meticulously curate my playlists. I listen to every song, delve into the artist's biography, and conduct thorough social media searches to verify their authenticity. My commitment lies in supporting genuine artists, fostering individual creativity, and celebrating authentic musical craftsmanship.

References and authors: BR24 Netzwelt, Jan 7, 2025/ Bayern 2 Kulturleben Jan 8, 2025, by Gregor Schmalzried. Harper's Magazin The Ghosts in the Machine - Spotify’s plot against musicians by Liz Pelly in Januar 2025 issue.

 Jan 5, 2025

Just before the era of legal streaming, there was a period of a few years when file-sharing networks boomed, and albums were downloaded as MP3s for a few cents on shady Eastern European platforms. It was almost a fatal blow to the entire music industry. Bands never earned a single cent from this illegal practice, which was carried out by people who claimed to be music fans. That wasn't a good time for anyone involved. Now, with legal streaming platforms, people can access unlimited music from all genres and around the world for a relatively small fee.

Jan 5, 2025

Many people criticize Spotify. There are comments calling them 'slave owners' and 'exploiters'. Artists, they say, earn nothing, the distribution is unfair, and the algorithm is a disaster. While there is some truth to these criticisms, there are also many reasons to appreciate the streaming platform. The most important one: nowhere else is the potential reach greater.

A German band with around 5,000 monthly listeners recently released figures that impressively confirm this. According to the band, the share between the streaming services for their music looks as follows (as of December 2024):

Spotify: approx. 110,000 streams - 280€
Apple: approx. 6,500 streams - 37€
Amazon: approx. 2,000 streams (no € available due to MP3 downloads)
Deezer: 823 streams -  3€
Tidal: 427 streams - 1,5€

The band explains: 'For me, Spotify isn't the platform to generate large sales, but rather the platform through which we want to reach as many people as possible and hopefully gain a few fans in the process.' They continue: 'Spotify simply has a reach that's absurdly larger than anything else. It's great that Deezer or Tidal give artists more, but Spotify's market power is undeniable.'

In the pre-streaming era, it was virtually impossible for up-and-coming bands to reach a global audience on such a scale. Today, thanks to platforms like Spotify, artists have unprecedented opportunities to connect with fans worldwide.

Get ready to dive deeper into the world of reach and discover what's possible in next blog posts.

 Jan 1, 2025

Why buy me a digital beer or coffee? Simply put, while my service is fundamentally free of charge, meaning there are no monthly fees or price lists like those often found with bot-driven pitching tools, it does cost me money, which I pay out of my own pocket as a matter of principle. Costs include the annual fee for the internet provider on which these websites run, almost weekly ads on Instagram (and other social media channels) promoting playlists, stickers, monthly costs for a mail and graphics program, and a few other small items. While this is still manageable in the three-digit range, it is still money that I personally spend for a lot of time and effort. I know that marketing agencies, pitching tools, etc., often with larger teams, charge a lot of money to promote a band's songs or place them in (often inappropriate or even questionable) playlists. In order to counteract this madness, especially for young, new, up-and-coming bands under the radar with limited resources, I developed blackmarketplaylists.de.

Therefore, I would always be very grateful if you would donate a digital beer or coffee. By the way: Of the 3 euros that a beer costs, for example, only about 2.50 euros end up in my pocket thanks to the fees for the payment service, which I cover - the rest goes to the payment provider. It would be even simpler via PayPal - if "Friends & Family" is selected. I'll gladly send you the link upon request. Thank you very much for your understanding!

July 24, 2024

All playlists are hand-curated, without AI, without bots, with out a team. It's just me. It's a free service to support up and coming bands under the radar. (I would be happy about digital beers to support and finance adverts, website costs and other fees, as everything is paid for with my own money. PayPal is also possible). blackmarketplaylists is not one of those pitching tools that promise hundreds of millions of streams and skyrocketing careers for a lot of money. I do everything because I love music. I listen to every song and try to answer every message. So, I am NOT a bot.