Video of NYC streaming farm allegedly used by major artists, labels surfaces

A video posted on TikTok purports to go inside a New Yortk City streaming farm that is allegedly used by labels, A&R. and major artists.

While the authenticity of the video has not been verified, multiple sources tell Hypebot that streaming bot farms do exist in the US, China and elsewhere and that some artists and labels are using them to game the system.

On several occasions, Spotify has kicked artists off the platform or reduced public stream counts for allegedly buying fake streams. But those artsits were D.I.Y. or indie.

Now this video marks one of the first times that major artists, A&R, and labels have been called out for using streaming farms to inflate stream coiunts.

“Even the most successful artists in the world have one foot in the black market.”

The video offers an unuually detailed account of this underground system that sources tell Hyebot coincides with their understand of how it works.

100,000 streams cost around $1500, a masked bot operator tells the interviewer, while also calling out Epic label artist French Montana as an example of an artist allegedly using streaming farms.