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As the music industry becomes increasingly conscious of — and vocal about — the challenges of the streaming model, fraudulent streams have become a source of growing frustration. “Every penny that goes to a fraudulent stream is a penny that doesn’t go to a legitimate stream,” says Richard Burgess, president and CEO of the American Association of Independent Music. “Fraudulently increased stream counts can affect recording budgets, licensing deals, catalog valuations and can result in the misallocation of marketing budgets.”
The French government, which recently published the results of a months-long, country-wide investigation into streaming fraud, portrayed understanding the impacts of this activity as an imperative. “The stakes are high in our country as well as in the rest of the world: the development of music services, which can be free and financed by advertising, or paid through subscriptions, as individual or family plans, constitutes a tremendous opportunity for the music sector, after years of a long crisis,” the report asserted. “…Such growth whets the appetites and stimulates the creativity of those who seek to abuse the system.”
“The multiplication of fake streams, that is to say the processes allowing [bad actors] to artificially boost play counts or views to generate an income, is nothing short of theft,” the report continued.
The French study, conducted without data from YouTube, Apple Music, or Amazon Music, found that 1% to 3% of plays were fraudulent, while also noting somberly that “the reality of fake streams goes beyond what is detected.” BeatDapp, a Vancouver-based company that creates fraud detection software for labels, publishers, distributors and streaming services, believes the global level of fraud is higher. “In 2020, estimates were 3 to 10% of all streaming activity was fraud,” the company wrote in 2022. “Today, we confidently say it’s at least 10%, and more in some regions. That equals ~$2B in potentially misallocated streaming revenues this year, and will be ~$7.5B by 2030 if left unchecked.”
So what forms does streaming fraud take? According to Burgess, the practice “covers a multitude of techniques used to increase stream counts or impressions by other than legitimate means.”
Here are three of the most common:
Bots
Discussion of streaming fraud often turns quickly to bots, which Burgess defines as “automated software that can be used to generate views, streams or interactions.” To detect bot activity and prevent it from affecting royalty payouts, companies build models that trawl streaming data and look for listening patterns that appear anomalous: BeatDapp likes to discuss an example of finding tens of thousands of accounts all streaming the same 63 songs.
“If I’m trying to push numbers up, I’m going to do it across streaming services in a subtle fashion this way,” BeatDapp co-CEO Andrew Batey says. “Spread it across a lot of accounts and multiple platforms, and you can drive a significant number of plays with no one looking.”
Click Farms
Streaming services are looking for suspicious play patterns that don’t reflect human behavior. Fraudsters are aware of this, so they try to camouflage their activity in ways that appear human. One method is to get actual humans to press Play through what are known as “click farms.”
Eric Drott, a professor at the University of Texas in Austin who has written about streaming fraud, describes these as “enterprises concentrating low-paid, precarious workers who are engaged to perform the sort of rote, repetitive tasks that keep the flows of digital capitalism moving: creating social media accounts, moderating content for platforms, clicking online ads, liking or rating items and, of course, generating plays on streaming services.” Accounts that stream music 24 hours a day or stem from a smartphone that never moves or dips below 100% power could be evidence of click-farm activity.
Imposters
A third prominent form of fraud identified by Burgess involves impersonating creators by uploading a version of their song to streaming services and illegally collecting creators’ legitimate royalties. This is a common problem faced by artists who are having a moment on TikTok, for example: Imposters post a version of the TikTok hit on streaming services under a slightly different name, aiming to divert some streams (and hopefully royalties) their way.
“It happens to every single viral artist,” says one manager who shepherded a viral act to a major-label deal last year. There are many distribution companies out there, and managers say that some of them have lax oversight of what’s being uploaded to the DSPs through their platforms. This means artists and their teams have to keep close watch on streaming platforms and issue takedowns when they find imposter versions.
Post Malone and Swae Lee‘s “Sunflower” music video officially surpassed 2 billion views on YouTube on Thursday (March 9).
Originally released in the fall of 2018, the song was part of the soundtrack for the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and also ultimately made the tracklist for Malone’s 2019 studio album Hollywood’s Bleeding.
The music video borrows a multitude of scenes from the family-friendly movie to spell out the origin story of a young Miles Morales even as the rappers take turns crooning, “Callin’ it quits now, baby, I’m a wreck/ Crash at my place, baby, you’re a wreck/ Thinkin’ in a bad way, losin’ your grip/ Screamin’ at my face, baby, don’t trip.”
“Sunflower” became Malone’s third career No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — after the 21 Savage-assisted “Rockstar” and “Psycho” featuring Ty Dolla $ign — when it reached the summit of the chart for a single week at the start of 2019. Meanwhile, it was Lee’s very first chart-topper and also scored nominations for record of the year and best pop duo/group performance at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
In November, the two rappers had another reason to celebrate their massive song after it achieved the record as the highest-certified single in the history of the Recording Industry Association of America at 17x Platinum.
Just a few weeks ago, the video for Posty’s 2015 breakout track “White Iverson” joined the Billion Views Club on YouTube, becoming the rapper’s fourth video to do so after “Sunflower,” “Rockstar” and “Congratulations” featuring Quavo — the latter of which is inching closer every day to the 1.5 billion mark.
Revisit the “Sunflower” music video below.
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Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty
Maino has once reminded the Hip-Hop community he is always on that type of time. The rapper recently choked Buba100x during an interview.
As per Complex the Brooklyn, New York MC had to put hands on yet another individual. Last week the YouTube personality pulled up on him and asked for an interview. Right away things were very awkward when Buba100x asked Jermaine if he could borrow his chain. Mind you the piece in question features a photograph of his recently deceased mother. Nevertheless, he took the request in stride but let the prankster know he should do better with his questioning. “See now you just chatting, I gave you time now you just chatting.”
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Next up he was going to ask the Lobby Boy to rate on a scale from one to ten how badly he would beat him up but before he could even finish his question Maino grabbed him by his neck and pinned him down on a table. “I just told you, it’s not just a stupid video don’t play with me” he said with a lot of bass in his voice. By the faces of utter shock on the other people there it seemed to be a very real situation but Maino says it was all staged.
In a sit down with Angela Yee he explained “It was all part of the prank. It was fake. I wanted to make it look real.”
You can view the clip of him allegedly manhandling Buba100x, with much ease by the way, below.
Susan Wojcicki announced in a blog post on Thursday that she will step down as CEO at YouTube after nine years, saying she wants to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.”
Taking over at the streaming media giant will be Neal Mohan, longtime chief product officer and Wojcicki’s No. 2 since 2015. She said she’ll “still be around” and will assist in the CEO transition and take on an advisory role across YouTube parent Alphabet/Google.
In a separate statement to Vox, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin said Wojcicki, who famously rented out her garage to the duo in 1998 and became their 16th employee a year later, holds a “unique place in Google history and has made the most incredible contribution to products used by people everywhere.”
A timeline for the CEO transition was not given. Read Wojcicki letter to employees, later posted on the YouTube blog:
Hi YouTubers,
Twenty-five years ago I made the decision to join a couple of Stanford graduate students who were building a new search engine. Their names were Larry and Sergey. I saw the potential of what they were building, which was incredibly exciting, and although the company had only a few users and no revenue, I decided to join the team.
It would be one of the best decisions of my life.
Over the years, I’ve worn many hats and done so many things: managed marketing, co-created Google Image Search, led Google’s first Video and Book search, as well as early parts of AdSense’s creation, worked on the YouTube and DoubleClick acquisitions, served as SVP of Ads, and for the last nine years, the CEO of YouTube. I took on each challenge that came my way because it had a mission that benefited so many people’s lives around the world: finding information, telling stories and supporting creators, artists, and small businesses. I’m so proud of everything we’ve achieved. It’s been exhilarating, meaningful, and all-consuming.
Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.
The time is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team in place at YouTube. When I joined YouTube nine years ago, one of my first priorities was bringing in an incredible leadership team. Neal Mohan was one of those leaders, and he’ll be the SVP and new head of YouTube. I’ve spent nearly 15 years of my career working with Neal, first when he came over to Google with the DoubleClick acquisition in 2007 and as his role grew to become SVP of Display and Video Ads. He became YouTube’s Chief Product Officer in 2015. Since then, he has set up a top-notch product and UX team, played pivotal roles in the launch of some of our biggest products, including YouTube TV, YouTube Music and Premium and Shorts, and has led our Trust and Safety team, ensuring that YouTube lives up to its responsibility as a global platform. He has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees. Neal will be a terrific leader for YouTube.
With all we’re doing across Shorts, streaming, and subscriptions, together with the promises of AI, YouTube’s most exciting opportunities are ahead, and Neal is the right person to lead us.
For all the YouTubers I’ve had the privilege to work with, you have done so much to make this platform better over the years. You created the largest creative economy the world has ever seen, enabled entirely new forms of art and storytelling, and supported millions of creators and artists to reach new audiences—all while investing in responsible growth so that this brilliant community of creators, artists, viewers, and advertisers could not only co-exist but thrive together. Thank you!
As for me, in the short term, I plan to support Neal and help with the transition, which will include continuing to work with some YouTube teams, coaching team members, and meeting with creators. In the longer term, I’ve agreed with Sundar to take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet. This will allow me to call on my different experiences over the years to offer counsel and guidance across Google and the portfolio of Alphabet companies. It’s an incredibly important time for Google—it reminds me of the early days—incredible product and technology innovation, huge opportunities, and a healthy disregard for the impossible.
And beyond that, I’ll still be around, so I’ll have a chance to thank the thousands of people from all across the company and the world who I’ve worked with and learned from. But for now, I want to thank Sundar for his leadership, support and vision over the years. I also want to thank Larry and Sergey for inviting me on what has truly been the adventure of a lifetime. I always dreamed of working for a company with a mission that could change the world for the better. Thanks to you and your vision, I got the chance to live that dream. It has been an absolute privilege to be a part of it, and I’m excited for what’s next.
Thank you for everything,Susan
The Scorpions‘ iconic video for their 1990 power ballad “Wind of Change” has officially entered the YouTube billion views club. The black and white clip that opens with a haunting whistle over images of fans holding up sparklers is credited by some with helping to hasten the end of the decades long Cold War between the U.S. and former Soviet Union.
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In between footage of singer Klaus Meine crooning and a massive crowd holding up lighters, the video sprinkles in images of tanks rolling, economic disasters, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in China and the fall of the Berlin Wall. “I follow the Moskva down to Gorky Park/ Listening to the winds of change/ An August summer night, soldiers passing by/ Listening to the winds of change,” Meine sings on the track from the band’s Crazy World album that is the band’s first video to pass the billion mark.
The power ballad that peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 tally and became the best-selling single by a German artist was written during a 1989 visit to Moscow; the previous year the band became the second-ever Western rock band to play in Russia when they performed in Leningrad on their Savage Amusement tour.
They returned in August 1989 for that summer’s Moscow Music Peace Festival — which also featured Ozzy Osbourne, Cinderella, Motley Crue, Skid Row and headliners Bon Jovi — where they said they were inspired by seeing thousands of young Russian fans cheering for a West German rock band. When the Berlin Wall fell in Nov. 1989, “Wind of Change” became a kind of unofficial anthem of German reunification.
The song was the subject of an eight-part 2020 podcast of the same name hosted by Patrick Radden Keefe that looked into the rumors that American intelligence officers were secretly behind the writing of the tune as part of an effort to end the Cold War. And while the band has never confirmed or refuted the rumors on the record, in the series an unnamed former spy told journalist and author Keefe that it was not out of the question that the CIA dabbled in subversive songwriting.
“In fact, I’d be somewhat surprised if they weren’t still doing that sort of thing today,” the source said in the podcast. “I’ll leave it to you to wonder which acts that might be.”
Check out “Winds of Change” below.
Just before the start of his previously scheduled trial, Jose Teran, who was accused of running a YouTube scam with a partner, has accepted a plea deal in which he has admitted to counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and transactional money laundering for his role in one of the largest royalty scams in history. In his plea, Teran admits to stealing over $23 million in royalties from Latin artists that he admits now he had “no lawful rights to monetize or otherwise control.”
Teran and his business partner, Webster Batista Fernandez, operated their scam under the business name “MediaMuv” and were originally indicted by a federal grand jury in Arizona on Nov. 16, 2021, on 30 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. The scam was the subject of a Billboard investigation. Batista took a plea deal on April 21, 2022, in which he admitted to one count of conspiracy and one count of wire fraud. Batista now awaits sentencing, which is currently scheduled for March.
Teran’s plea agreement echoes much of Batista’s. Both pleas say that the MediaMuv founders “discovered there were songs of musicians and bands on the internet that were not being monetized.” So they began uploading the recordings to YouTube as MP3 files, claiming to own or control the rights. Between 2016 and 2021, Teran and Batista falsely claimed royalties from songwriters and artists ranging from independent creators to songs recorded by global stars like Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Prince Royce, Julio Iglesias and Anuel AA.
Under the name MediaMuv, Teran and Batista signed a contract with YouTube to use its content management system (CMS), which rights holders use to claim copyright ownership and the ensuing royalties. “We falsely claimed that MediaMuv owned over 50,000 songs and further sought access to YouTube’s CMS in order to obtain royalty payments for these songs,” Teran said in his plea. In addition, the duo entered a contract with AdRev, a rights management company owned by Downtown Music Holdings, “to assist in administering the music [they] fraudulently claimed to own.”
Billboard’s investigation uncovered that YouTube royalty-claiming scams like MediaMuv’s are more common than is generally believed, but Teran and Batista’s scheme was particularly brazen in terms of both scale and style.
Sources who work closely with the platform say YouTube scammers typically just claim small fractions of songs they suspect have not been claimed properly and might go unnoticed. This is especially common on the publishing side, where some compositions have so many songwriters that ownership and royalties are far more complicated than they are for recordings. But MediaMuv often claimed 100% of royalties for master recordings or compositions.
Both Batista and Teran admitted in their pleas that they sent three falsified contracts with companies that “purportedly” managed artists to AdRev and YouTube “for the purpose of deceiving [them] into allowing [MediaMuv] to continue [its] fraudulent operation” in July 2017. According to Teran’s plea deal, these three forged management contracts were provided to support MediaMuv’s assertion that it controlled a vast Latin music catalog.
The plea deals also say the duo did not act alone. Both mention that they hired “over five co-conspirators” to help them find new music to fraudulently claim and, in return, those co-conspirators were paid “a portion of [MediaMuv’s] royalties.” Names are not revealed in these documents, but other court documents tied MediaMuv to a network of people who seem to have benefited financially from Teran and Batista’s scheme, including Batista’s then-wife, who purchased a house in Phoenix in cash with money from a MediaMuv-associated bank account, according to a court document filed by prosecutors.
The house she purchased, along with six bank accounts, a Tesla, a BMW and a plot of land, are all listed in Teran and Batistas’ plea deals as items they agree to forfeit.
Though the duo is ordered to “make restitution to any victim” of their crimes, one of the businessmen who represented multiple MediaMuv victims told Billboard in August he doesn’t “expect to get it all back. I’m sure they spent a lot of it on cars and travel and stuff.”
In a statement to Billboard, a spokesman for Downtown Music Holdings says the company is “pleased by the latest developments in the MediaMuv criminal case, as both defendants have now pleaded guilty and admitted their role in this complex fraud scheme. This case sends a strong message to other potential bad actors that this kind of fraudulent activity in our industry will be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Representatives for Teran and YouTube did not respond to Billboard’s request for comment.
Teran’s sentencing is set for April 17, 2023.
Talk about way more than halfway there! The music video for Bon Jovi‘s classic single “Livin’ On a Prayer” officially crossed the billion view milestone on YouTube Wednesday (Feb. 1).
As the second single off the band’s 1986 breakthrough album Slippery When Wet, “Living On a Prayer” followed “You Give Love a Bad Name” as the New Jersey rockers’ second consecutive No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and dominated the chart for four consecutive weeks in February and March of 1987, sandwiched between Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” and “Jacob’s Ladder” by Huey Lewis and the News.
The music video, meanwhile, was filmed at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles and finds frontman Jon Bon Jovi belting out, “Tommy used to work on the docks/ Union’s been on strike, he’s down on luck/ It’s tough, so tough/ Gina works a diner all day/ Working for her man/ She brings home her pay for love, for love” as his bandmates flail above the stage on a fly system.
According to YouTube, the black-and-white visual filled with pyrotechnics becomes Bon Jovi’s second video to achieve the nine-digit viewership feat after 2000’s “It’s My Life.”
Last June, Alec John Such, Bon Jovi’s founding member and bassist from 1983 to 1994, sadly passed away at the age of 70. At the time, his former bandmates paid emotional tribute to him on social media, writing, “He was an original. As a founding member of Bon Jovi, Alec was integral to the formation of the band. To be honest, we found our way to each other thru him – He was a childhood friend of Tico and brought Richie to see us perform…Today those special memories bring a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. We’ll miss him dearly.”
Revisit Bon Jovi’s music video for “Livin’ On a Prayer” in the video above.
YouTube will return for its second presentation during Upfronts week at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, taking over the longtime home of Disney and during a time slot closely following Netflix’s first advertiser showcase.
David Geffen Hall will be a major upgrade for YouTube’s second Brandcast during Upfronts, which has long been an advertiser marketplace typically dominated by legacy TV networks. Last year, the Google-owned video giant hosted its first presentation at Imperial Theatre in midtown, which seats just under 1,460 people. David Geffen Hall will expand YouTube’s audience capacity to 2,200.
Last year, YouTube Brandcast — which featured performances from Jon Batiste and Lizzo — promoted YouTube Shorts, the company’s TikTok competitor, and live shopping. This year’s presentation is also expected to hone in on Shorts and YouTube TV, which recently nabbed the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package.
YouTube Brandcast will take place on the Wednesday of Upfronts, May 17, at 7 p.m. ET, followed by an afterparty. The timing may be less ideal for advertisers also attending Netflix’s first Upfront presentation at the Paris Theater, which is happening that same day at 5 p.m. ET and is also followed by an afterparty.
NBCUniversal will kick off Upfronts week on May 15 at Radio City Music Hall. Disney has not yet announced a date or venue for its Upfront presentation, and Paramount Global is skipping the event entirely in exchange for a series of gatherings in April.
Like last year, YouTube will still have a presence at the digital-focused IAB NewFronts with a morning presentation on May 1.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
YouTube and Goldenvoice have once again renewed their livestream and content partnership agreement for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival, striking an agreement that keeps the mega two-weekend festival on the Google-owned video platform through 2026.
First signed in 2011, the streaming partnership was renewed in 2018 through 2021 — the 2020 and 2021 versions of the festival were postponed due to COVID-19. Last year, the two companies worked out an agreement to air the festival’s post-pandemic return.
Besides multichannel live streaming and on-demand video from performances, the partnership enables fan shopping for Coachella merch, exclusive content for YouTube Premium subscribers, live chat, and onsite activations with YouTube creators and artists.
YouTube’s global head of music Lyor Cohen called the renewal “an absolute honor” and said the partnership would “bring the magic of Coachella to music fans,” while Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett said the agreement “brings Coachella to everyone around the world.”
Coachella is scheduled to take place April 14-16 and April 21-23.
Mr. Worldwide has made it to the Billion Views Club once again.
This time, it’s the video for his inescapable 2011 club anthem “Give Me Everything,” featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer. The hit song was No. 1 on the year-end Rhythmic Songs chart in 2011 and also marked Pitbull’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, seven years after his 2004 debut “Culo” alongside Lil Jon.
Pit has reached 1 billion views on YouTube three times before: with “Timber” (featuring Ke$ha), “Rain Over Me” (featuring Marc Anthony) and Jennifer Lopez’s “On the Floor.” “Give Me Everything” marks Ne-Yo and Afrojack’s second entry into the Billion Views Club and Nayer’s first.
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The track, produced by Afrojack, boasts a number of sonic elements defining the 2011 era, including bright piano chords, dominant synths and danceable builds. Since the release of “Give Me Everything,” the Cuban-American pop star has kept busy, scoring his second Hot 100 chart-topper with “Timber” and a Hot Latin Songs No. 1 with “Dame Tu Cosita” alongside El Chombo, Karol G and Cutty Ranks, among other Billboard chart achievements.
The track’s party-centric music video features appearances from Adrienne Bailon, Miss Haiti 2010 Sarodj Bertin and Russian model Eva Skaya. While “Give Me Everything” was all good vibes, there was one person who wasn’t too happy about the song: Lindsay Lohan. The now-36-year-old actress — who was mentioned in the line “I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan” — was so offended by the name-drop that she sued Pitbull, to no avail.
“Give Me Everything” was released via Polo Grounds Music, Mr. 305 Entertainment and J Records, serving as a single from Pitbull’s Planet Pit. The track reverberated through clubs and high school dances alike throughout the 2010s and continues to ring out into the new decade.