How To Identify Botted Playlists and Protect Your Music

Learn the signs of bot-boosted playlists, that are bound to waste your marketing efforts, and ensure your streams come from real listeners who matter.

by Chris Robley from Reverbnatio

If your music’s getting botted, your music could get booted. 

Yes, tracks and playlists with inflated streams (also known as streaming fraud) run the risk of being removed from platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. 

And you run this risk whether or not you knowingly engage in bad behavior. 

For instance, if you enlist a promotion company who inflates your streams, or if your song ends up on a botted playlist, you could see your track, your catalog, your entire user account, or your artist profile deleted from the very platforms you rely on to share your music with the world. 

“How do I avoid getting my tracks removed?”

Well, I wrote a whole article about streaming fraud: What it is, why it happens, how it negatively impacts all artists and labels, and how you can avoid the fallout. 

I recommend you read those tips. But there was one area that required a bit more detail: How to know if a particular playlist has inflated streams, so you can steer clear! 

Here’s how to avoid botted playlists. 

“Is this playlist going to help or hurt me?”

There are a handful of things to look for that may indicate a 3rd-party playlist has been created for purposes outside of authentic human engagement.

SUSPICIOUS PLAYLISTS MIGHT EXIST TO:

• House tracks by artists who’ve paid to have their stream-counts inflated
• Gather tracks by artists who’ve paid for placement, despite the playlist having no genuine listener interest
• Assemble a catalog of potentially problematic tracks, such as AI-generated audio, functional noise, music by fake artists, and carbon-copies (copyright infringement!)

You only have so many minutes in your day. If you’re pitching your music to playlists, you want that time to be worth the effort. So there are a number of things you can check beforehand to see if a playlist is legit or suspicious. 

Some of these things are publicly and instantly viewable, and some of them require you to access certain data through a service like Chartmetric or artist.tools — or at the very least, to do some deeper analysis on your own. 

How to spot botted playlists

The more obvious red flags include:

BAD OR NO BRANDING

Legit playlists care about their listener experience, and that means they’ve probably put a lot of effort into not just the list of tracks, but also the playlist cover artwork and profile artwork and descriptions. 

If a playlist looks shoddy or neglected, you should avoid it.

A MYSTERIOUS USER PROFILE

Does the playlist curator seem like a real person? Cool. 

If not, beware. 

NO OTHER INTERNET PRESENCE

Lots of serious curators will have a social profile and/or website to share the lists they’re proud of. 

If they don’t, why are they hiding? 

FISHY FOLLOWERS NAMES

You can view the followers of the user account who created the playlist. 

Scroll through. If you see mostly numbers and squiggles and smashes like this…

 … turn around!

LOTS OF UNKNOWN ARTISTS

This isn’t to say there aren’t music fans out there who genuinely love obscure artists.

But be honest: Most playlists are going to contain some artists who are, if not famous, at least notable within their sub-genre. 

LOTS OF FAMOUS ARTISTS, PLUS ONE OR TWO UNKNOWNS

Hmmmm. 

Why would those obscure tracks be welcome in a list populated almost entirely by bigger songs? Fishy.

LOTS OF RANDOM TRACKS THAT DON’T FIT A THEME OR GENRE

Imagine a playlist with no recognizable vibe or organizing principle. Who would listen to such a playlist? 

Not humans. Bots.  

PAY FOR PLACEMENT

Someone who asks you to pay to get your track on their playlist clearly has different incentives than sharing their favorite music. 

Ask yourself why. 

PAID PLAYLIST PROMO

This is a big one. If you’ve enlisted a company or promoter to get your track onto playlists, you better be damn sure that they’ve vetted a list of legit curators. 

Because the more common occurrence, sadly, is that these promo companies are scams, guaranteeing results, and then using fraudulent tactics (like bots) to deliver the “results.” 

Tragically, the final result may be your music’s removal from streaming platforms. 

SUBMISSION GATES

If someone forces you to follow a playlist before you can submit a track, they’re artificially inflating the appearance of interest. 

This doesn’t necessarily equate to botted streams, but it’s a warning sign the playlist isn’t worth your time. 

The follower count doesn’t matter; it’s how many humans are actually LISTENING to a playlist. 

RANDOM “FANS ALSO LIKE” RECOMMENDATIONS

This one may take a bit of digging on your part, but check out the artists who are featured on a particular playlist. Look at their Spotify profiles and see if the other artists mentioned in the “fans also like” section are ACTUALLY similar. 

If not, they may be artificially inflating their streams by appearing in botted playlists with dissimilar music. 

INCREDIBLE SAVE-RATES

This may sound counterintuitive, since bots are essentially disengaged listeners and you might think that a great save-rate shows true enjoyment. 

But here’s the thing: If your song is on a playlist that’s driving amazing streaming AND save results, it might be fishy. Because after all, your song is on a playlist. Which by design is a more passive listening experience. 

So if the save-rates seem too good to be true, it might be an indication that a sophisticated bot farm is clicking that save button too. 

“STREAM PER LISTENER” RATE IS TOO HIGH

If your song is on a list that’s driving lots of streams, but not increasing the listeners in reasonable proportion, your track could be getting looped. 

An average new fan might love your song and listen another 1-3 times. But they’re not going to listen 15 times. 

Warning signs that require data analysis:

BIG SPIKES OR DECLINES IN PLAYLIST METRICS

Does the follower-count or streaming activity jump and dip quickly? Might be sketchy. 

Genuine playlists usually grow more slowly and consistently. 

POOR ENGAGEMENT ON TRACKS

If the tracks on a playlist have big play-counts but small save-ratios, or the artists themselves have few followers, that might be a warning sign. 

It could also be that the track performs well in passive listening situations (Spotify Radio, for instance) without leading to deep engagement, but… that’s probably an exception to the rule. 

WEIRD TOP COUNTRIES AND CITIES

I’m not saying the countries or cities are weird. 

I’m saying, it’s weird that the tracks on the playlist suddenly skyrocket in a random place where the genre isn’t popular, or the artists don’t tour, don’t market, and don’t have existing traction. 

ODDLY-WEIGHTED GEOGRAPHIC LISTENING

If most of the streaming activity for a particular track or artist is coming from one place (that isn’t the artist’s hometown), watch out! 

I’m not sure if it’s still true, but for a while Buffalo, New York was showing up as a common location for bot activity. 

Now you can avoid problematic playlists

Streaming fraud and botted playlists have become such a common problem that platforms are really cracking down. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your music and career aren’t damaged by the fallout. 

Knowing how to tell the difference between legit and botted playlists is crucial. And while this article probably doesn’t include every possible indicator of bad behavior, it’s enough to get you started in your own playlist investigation. 

Here’s hoping you find some great playlists, with engaged listeners, and a passionate curator who shares music for the right reasons.  

When you do, check out these tips on making a great playlist pitch!