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Spotify denies inserting fake artists into their biggest playlists despite some real dodgy evidence

It’s impossible to deny the influence Spotify has gained in modern music publishing. In the last five years, artists have straight-up kickstarted their entire careers simply from being added to the right playlist, gaining millions of plays in a short time, copping an influx of  royalties as well as a swell of popularity.

Right now the streaming giant is under fire for allegedly creating fake artists to bolster their biggest playlists. They’ve denied all such activity but the fact remains; there are fake artists in these playlists. And they’re not even hard to find.

spotify ambient chill fake artists playlists music business worldwide

Are Spotify creating fake artists to bolster their playlists? If so, why? And who are these mysterious producers acting under pseudonyms?

Jumping into a ton of Spotify’s most popular playlists (Ambient Chill and Piano and Chill are examples), you’ll find several artists who have millions of plays to their name, despite having no online presence elsewhere and only a few public tracks.

Artists that only appear on Spotify are strange enough by themselves, and the fact that there are so many, all placed in massive playlists is certainly fishy. That being said, a lot of the most damning information gathered against the service is based on anonymous statements.

For now, we’ll have to see how this story develops.

Here are 50 of these artists, sniffed out by Music Business Worldwide.

Amity Cadet (9.2m)
Gabriel Parker (24.9m)
Charlie Key (23.6m)
Ana Olgica (23.5m)
Lo Mimieux (22.3m)
Mbo Mentho (10.3m)
Benny Treskow (14.9m)
Greg Barley (21.4m)
Relajar (13.4m)
Jeff Bright Jr (15.8m)
Mayhem (10.2m)
Novo Talos (17.2m)
Advaitas (7.4m)
Clay Edwards (4.7m)
Benny Bernstein (9.6m)
Enno Aare (17.1m)
Amy Yeager (5.7m)
Otto Wahl (27m)
Piotr Miteska (26.7m)
Leon Noel (2.7m)
Giuseppe Galvetti (2.7m)
Caro Utobarto (1.2m)
Risto Carto (1.7m)
Enno Aare (17.1m)
Hultana (3.2m)
Hiroshi Yamazaki (8.6m)
Milos Stavos (7.1m)
Allysa Nelson (4.3m)
They Dream By Day (16.2m)
Evelyn Stein (14.3m)
Józef Gatysik (10.4m)
Jonathan Coffey (480k)
Pernilla Mayer (4.2m)
Hermann (11.8m)
Aaron Lansing (11.3m)
Dylan Francis (6.5m)
Christopher Colman (509k)
Sam Eber (1.6m)
Fellows (3.3m)
Martin Fox (2.5m)
Deep Watch (4.8m)
The 2 Inversions (10.3m)
Bon Vie (4.7m)
Wilma Harrods (5.3m)
Antologie (5.8m)
Heinz Goldblatt (513k)
Charles Bolt (32.4m)
Samuel Lindon (11.8m)
Tony Lieberman (2.5m)
Mia Strass (8.9m)

Read the full report on Music Business Worldwide.