Digital Music Companies Band Together to Combat Streaming Fraud With New Task Force

Streaming fraud and streaming manipulation is nothing new to the music business, costing artists and platforms hundreds of millions of dollars — and perhaps as much as $1 billion — each year. But lately, the industry has finally begun to confront the problem in a more cohesive, coherent way. In that spirit, a new coalition of digital music companies announced on Wednesday (June 14) the formation of Music Fights Fraud, “a global task force aimed at eradicating streaming fraud,” the organization said.

Those involved come largely from the digital distribution world, where fraud can sometimes proliferate due to the sheer volume of the business. The companies involved include the biggest digital distributors in the business: CD Baby and its parent company Downtown Music, TuneCore and its parent company Believe, DistroKid, EMPIRE, UnitedMasters, Symphonic and Vydia, as well as Spotify and Amazon Music. It is, according to the organization, the first time the industry has come together to tackle the issue head-on.

“The objectives of Music Fights Fraud are to detect, prevent, mitigate and enforce anti-fraud measures,” the organization says, with the goal of a fair and balanced global streaming ecosystem in which all parties contribute to the fight. The companies have partnered with the third-party nonprofit National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA) to share data and coordinate their anti-fraud efforts.

“Downtown holds trust and safety for our clients and industry partners as a core pillar of our organization,” Downtown Music Holdings CEO Andrew Bergman said in a statement. “We are proud to combine forces with our colleagues across the industry and build on the fantastic work already developed at Downtown to identify and address abusive streaming behavior. Given our deep commitment to empowering creators, we recognize that working with parties outside of our organization is also an important step in developing a comprehensive plan to strengthen the music ecosystem.”

In addition to the member companies, the initiative is supported by the heads of Music Biz — which just hosted three panels dedicated to the topic of streaming fraud at its annual conference last month — and the RIAA. Music Fights Fraud said that additional member companies will be announced soon.

“Believe is committed to fostering a fairer, balanced and diverse artist and label market, where all music creators can thrive,” Believe founder/CEO Denis Ladegaillerie said in a statement. “As we build the future of our industry, we must ensure fake streaming and abusive streaming do not have a place. The launch of Music Fights Fraud is an important step towards that goal, and I am proud to join hands with our digital music partners and distributors to ensure we find effective ways to stop fraud streaming, to ultimately bring more fairness and transparency to the music sector.”

“Vydia continues to create tools and resources that allow its label clients to operate in an environment impacted by the onslaught of streaming fraud, however, the bad actors continue to pursue and pivot their approach,” added Vydia vp of rights and content Matthew Skiba. “This illicit activity not only affects artists, labels, and the DSPs, but consumers, too. As such, Vydia is proud to champion this cause, alongside other industry leaders, to create parity amongst artists and labels in the streaming ecosystem.”

Added TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson, “Streaming fraud is a costly issue, with bad actors diluting the royalty pool and taking money out of the pockets of legitimate music creators. This has a great impact on self-releasing artists, who account for 5.7% of the world’s streams and represent the fastest growing sector of the global music industry, with over 6.4 million artists. TuneCore is proud to join other leading digital music distributors and DSPs to, for the first time ever, pool our resources and stand together to fight streaming fraud and create a fairer, more equitable streaming landscape for creators.”

More information can be found here.