Why this exists
Stream manipulation — bots, click farms, playlist-swapping schemes designed to inflate numbers artificially — hurts every legitimate artist on a platform, since it corrupts the royalty pool that real streams get paid out of and puts the entire catalog on a distributor at risk with the DSPs themselves. Every DSP (Spotify, Apple Music, and the rest) actively polices this, and distributors are expected to as well.
What counts as manipulation
- Purchasing streams, plays, or engagement from services promising guaranteed numbers.
- Using bots, click farms, or stream-farming schemes.
- Playlist placement services that guarantee adds — legitimate editorial and algorithmic placement cannot be bought, and services claiming otherwise are either using fake/dead playlists or engaging in exactly this kind of manipulation.
- Coordinated repetitive streaming from a small number of accounts/devices designed to look organic but isn't.
How this is monitored
Accounts and releases are monitored for unusual streaming patterns as part of standard platform operations. This isn't about flagging normal spikes from real promotion (a viral TikTok moment, a legitimate ad campaign, a playlist add) — it's about patterns that are statistically inconsistent with organic listening behavior.
What happens if a release is flagged
Flagged releases are reviewed before any action is taken. Depending on severity, consequences can range from a release being held pending review to royalties being withheld for affected streams to, in serious or repeated cases, account-level penalties including suspension (see "Suspended accounts" in Account & Security). This is a zero-tolerance area — it's one of the few places where DistroVibe's own policy is deliberately stricter than "benefit of the doubt."
If you believe a flag was a mistake
Open a support ticket immediately with details of your promotional activity (legitimate ad campaigns, playlist placements, etc.) — genuine organic growth spikes do happen, and providing context helps resolve a false flag quickly.