Rapper sues Spotify for allegedly inflating play counts, saying: 'No real person streams Drake's music 23 hours a day'
An American rapper named RBX has filed a lawsuit against
Real humans don't stream Drake songs 23 hours a day, rapper suing Spotify says - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/11/real-humans-dont-stream-drake-songs-23-hours-a-day-rapper-suing-spotify-says/
Spotify Sued Over 'Billions' of Fraudulent Drake Streams
RBX filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of 'other similarly situated artists,' alleging that 'Spotify is using fraudulent and unlawful methods, including the use of bots, to obtain billions of fraudulent streams. This fraudulent activity disrupts revenue distribution and causes significant financial harm to legitimate artists, songwriters, producers, and other rights holders.'
Spotify distributes revenues on a pro rata model based on artists' market share, meaning that when certain artists are paid more, other artists are paid less.
According to RBX, Drake, the popular singer, is particularly likely to have benefited from inflated streams. Drake is the first artist in Spotify history to reach 120 billion cumulative streams. However, while other artists' streams tend to spike immediately after an album's release and then decline, Drake's streams tend to rise erratically over several years, not just immediately after release.
Furthermore, RBX has observed a large number of accounts playing Drake's songs 23 hours a day, and some of them playing from uninhabited or unstable areas where long-term streaming is not possible. Based on this, RBX believes that the number of plays Drake has received is fraudulent, created by bots.
RBX estimates that approximately 37 billion of Drake's streams between January 2022 and September 2025 were generated by bots, resulting in the loss of hundreds of millions of yen in compensation that should have been paid to other artists.
When asked for comment on the matter, a Spotify spokesperson said, 'We cannot discuss ongoing litigation,' but added, 'Spotify does not profit from the issue of unauthorized streaming. We invest heavily in industry-leading systems and protect our artist revenue share program through strong safeguards, including preventing unauthorized playback, determining compensation, and imposing fines.'
He continued, 'In 2024, a malicious artist was indicted for stealing $10 million from Spotify, but the actual loss was only $60,000, proving how effectively we are curbing fraud.'
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