A new lawsuit filed against Spotify alleges the service let bots generate billions of fake streams for Drake, inflating his totals and boosting payouts at the expense of other artists. The complaint covers activity between January 2022 and September 2025 and centers on patterns the plaintiffs describe as abnormal and centrally coordinated.
Rolling Stone first reported the complaint and argues Spotify pays artists based on their share of total streams, so artificially pumped play counts shift a larger slice of the royalty pool to the artist that benefits from the bogus traffic. The suit singles out Drake as the sole named example, claiming “voluminous information” shows a “substantial, non-trivial percentage” of his roughly 37 billion streams were inauthentic and tied to a sprawling bot operation.
Spotify pushed back with a statement, noting it cannot comment on pending litigation but saying “Spotify in no way benefits from the industry-wide challenge of artificial streaming. We heavily invest in best-in-class systems to combat it, like removing fake streams, withholding royalties, and charging penalties.”
VPN usage, odd streaming patterns, and round-the-clock listening
The complaint points to abnormal VPN usage masking locations, and highlights one four-day window in 2024 where at least 250,000 streams of Drake’s track “No Face” allegedly originated in Turkey but were routed to appear as UK plays. It also notes clusters of plays from areas with little to no residential population.
The filing claims a small share of accounts produced a large share of plays, with some accounts streaming Drake “23 hours a day” and less than 2 percent of users representing roughly 15 percent of his streams, a concentration the complaint says is inconsistent with organic listening.
The accusations come as other platforms also grapple with artificial traffic. Twitch has faced escalating viewbotting claims that appear to have affected rankings and payouts, and the lawsuit references that wider context with a link to coverage of Twitch’s challenges.
The Drake suit arrived days after a separate class-action case tied to Stake and Kick alleged unlawful promotion involving Drake and streamer Adin Ross.
Spotify has previously taken action against spammy and AI-generated content on the platform; we previously covered Spotify removing 75 million spammy songs as part of a cleanup effort, and earlier coverage examined backlash over AI-generated tracks on the service.
Expect this case to play out in court and to draw attention to how streaming platforms detect and respond to coordinated artificial activity. Comments welcome, and follow us on X, Bluesky, and YouTube.
