Fake Spotify Steams Site Hit By Industry Injunction

A major site that sold “plays” on Spotify and other streaming music sites has been forced offline by a German court.

The IFPI, representing the recording industry worldwide, and its German affiliate, BVMI, announced Tuesday that a Berlin District Court had issued an injunction against the operator of Followerschmiede.de, a prominent streaming manipulation site.

The injunction ordered German-based Followerschmiede.de to discontinue that activity.

As of Tuesday morning, the site is offline.

Last year, IFPI joined an industry coalition in signing a voluntary code of best practice aiming to detect and prevent stream manipulation as well as mitigate its effects in the marketplace.  

Since then, Spotify and other streamers have taken some behind the scenes actions to stop streaming manipulation but none have brought legal action against the offenders.

Frances Moore, chief executive, IFPI, said: “Those who create music must be remunerated fairly and accurately for their work and investment. Stream manipulation undermines this – whether by undermining the accuracy of charts, royalty payments to music creators or otherwise – and cannot be tolerated.

“Streaming platforms need to find a robust technical solution to this issue. For our part, we are prepared to take legal action against these sites, as shown by this action in Germany, and we will continue to do so wherever necessary worldwide.”

Dr. Florian Drücke, Chairman & CEO, BVMI, said: “We took this action as part of our commitment to protect the legitimate legal market for music and to hinder any fraudulent services seeking to undermine it.

“This should be seen as a signal to other manipulation services that we are prepared to take action against them.”