This guide provides an overview of how stores like Spotify are changing their rules and how you can align yourself accordingly. Please feel free to share any feedback or issues with us.

Artificial Streaming

Artificial streaming is when artists artificially increase the number of plays or sales of music to make it seem more popular and earn more money. This often happens through third parties that offer to get you a certain number of streams for a fee. Using these services can harm your work, leading to your streams or earnings being withheld or even having your music removed from streaming platforms entirely.

It is also possible that leaving a track, an album, or a playlist looping for a long time might be counted as artificial streaming.

As your distributor, Boomkit is not notified in advance if a music service deems some of your plays to be artificial. We also are not informed about the criteria used by these services to determine what is artificial versus genuine user engagement. However, we believe that if you have paid a third party to generate plays, there is a high risk that these plays will be deemed artificial, which could result in penalty fees or other sanctions.

• What happens if my music is included in artificial streaming reports?

If streams of your music are flagged as artificial in the reports we receive from a music store, we will inform you. The report will detail the number of streams identified as artificial by the music store.

The music store will exclude those streams from royalty calculations, potentially resulting in deductions from future royalties. Continuous artificial activity could lead to partial or complete removal of your songs from streaming platforms entirely.

• What can I do as an Artist?

Before your next release, discuss approved promotion and marketing opportunities with us. You can reach us at support@boomkit.me or through the live chat on the Boomkit app.

We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the terms of service and policies of major music streaming platforms. Understand what constitutes artificial streaming and the potential consequences for you as an artist, label, or user involved.

Thoroughly research any potential marketing and promotion partners. Only collaborate with reliable organizations, and ensure that no one you work with uses bots or other similar tactics to artificially increase streams.

• Spotify’s Artificial Streaming Fee

Spotify may levy a fee on Boomkit for any track where artificial streams account for more than 90% of its total streams. This fee is €10 (₦17,476) per track per month.

If fines are applied to tracks you have distributed via Boomkit, we will deduct these penalty fees from your monthly payments. We will only deduct fines from the specific partners who supplied the tracks subject to the fines we are charged.

Spotify’s new Monetisation Rules

Beginning in 2024, Spotify introduced new policies that affect the way content is monetized on their platform. Spotify explains track monetization eligibility in more detail here.

*Note: Monetization refers to a track’s ability to earn revenue from streams, while demonetization means the track will not have the ability to earn revenue.

• Spotify Noise Content

Spotify pays a reduced royalty rate for noise content, which is defined as “all non-music, non-spoken-word audio,” such as nature or machine sounds.

For noise content to earn royalties, it must be longer than two minutes.

If you have noise content under 2 minutes and want to update the audio files please get in touch using support@boomkit.me

• Spotify Unqualified Streams

Spotify will only pay revenue for tracks of any genre if they have received at least 1,000 streams from a minimum of 50 unique listeners within the past 12 months. This means that Spotify will not pay you if your track does not meet this threshold.

Detailed information by Spotify here – https://support.spotify.com/us/artists/article/track-monetization-eligibility/
We will share reports with you labelled as ‘Spotify Unqualified Tracks’ if your tracks fall into this category.

Appeals and Questions

If you wish to contest your tracks being listed in these reports, please email support@boomkit.me with the affected ISRCs and a brief explanation.

For any questions, feel free to reach out to us at support@boomkit.me

We want to take a moment to warn you about some deceptive advertisements we’ve recently seen for illegitimate music promotion services.

Third parties that promise playlist placements or a specific number of streams in exchange for compensation are likely using illegitimate practices without your knowledge. These services can threaten your hard work, resulting in the potential withholding of streams or royalties, or even the complete removal of your catalogue from streaming services.

Our streaming partners work diligently to ensure streams are legitimate, meaning they reflect genuine user listening intent. If a service finds that you (or a third party hired by you or on your behalf) have boosted play counts through any automated, deceptive, fraudulent or other invalid means (digital bots, “click farms”, payment for placement on playlists, etc.), the service may permanently remove your entire catalogue.

If you’re in the market for a music promotion service, make sure to do your research before you hire them. Don’t put your music at risk.

Read more in Spotify’s Helpcenter here.

How much each stream pays varies greatly depending on things such as:

• Whether or not the Spotify user is Free or Premium (a premium stream pays more than a free stream)
• Which region they’re listening from (different regions have different payment in Spotify since the Premium subscription fee varies between countries)
• The period when it’s being streamed (payment also varies in Spotify from day to day, based on the total number of Premium users)
• If the track is receiving unique streams (repeated streams from the same user will not be counted for royalties, see more info below)

So, in summary, there’s no way to know exactly how much a stream is worth in royalties since it varies depending on many different factors. Feel free to check out Loud & Clear by Spotify to learn more about royalties concerning streaming.

A final note about abnormal streaming activity and how it relates to royalties:

When the same Spotify user streams the track multiple times, this is called abnormal streaming activity. Spotify has systems in place to check this and repeated streams from the same user will not be counted for royalties.

Abnormal streaming activity can be the result of one of these things:

1. Paid promotion through a third-party service. This usually means that the artist has paid to have their release(s) added to playlists with fake listeners. (Always make sure all playlists you pitch your music to are legit).
2. Systematically putting the song on repeat for a very long period.

Please don’t engage in abnormal streaming activity as this might lead to:

• Stores not paying out your royalties.
• Boomkit account getting frozen/ deactivated.
• Releases taken down, either by the stores or Boomkit

If you still have any remaining questions about your streams after reading this article, please submit a request to [support@boomkit.me] and we’ll look into it for you!

Until now, Discovery Mode has been available on Spotify for Artists for eligible artist’s teams in select markets. Over the next few months, Spotify is planning to expand access to eligible artist teams in additional markets.

If your Spotify for Artists account has a billing country associated with one of the below markets, and you meet the artist eligibility criteria, you may be granted access over the coming months to set up and manage your Discovery Mode campaigns directly in Spotify for Artists. You will receive an email from Spotify once you have been granted access.

In advance of gaining access, please ensure you have a Spotify for Artists account setup and verify the following information:

• Confirm that the billing country you have associated with your Spotify for Artists account is correct. If you need to verify or update your billing country, please follow these instructions.
• Confirm that the email address you have on file in Spotify for Artists is up to date so you will receive communications about Discovery Mode. To update your email, follow these instructions.
• Confirm that your S4A account language and email language are set to your preferences, by following these instructions.

Please note that only members of your artist team who have Admin and Editor access in Spotify for Artists will be able to set up Discovery Mode campaigns. Anyone on your artist team, including those who have Reader access, will be able to view Discovery Mode performance reports. If you wish to change your team access levels in Spotify for Artists, follow these instructions.

Additionally, if you’d like to express your interest in Spotify in gaining access to this new tool, you can complete this form. Please ensure that you have accurately entered your Spotify Artist URI in the form, otherwise, Spotify will not be able to process your form submission. To find your Spotify Artist URI, follow the instructions here. While Spotify cannot guarantee access at this time, they will reach out with more info should you be provided access.