Drake is mentioned, albeit not accused of wrongdoing or named as a defendant, in a recently filed class action complaint alleging “billions of fraudulent streams” on Spotify. To be clear, such claims have not been independently confirmed as of this writing.
Listed as the plaintiff in the California-filed complaint, as viewed by Complex on Monday, is Eric Dwayne Collins, better known to the general public as RBX. The action is said to be brought against Spotify on behalf of both RBX and “a similarly situated class of music recording artists, songwriters, performers, and other music rights holders” who make money on Spotify.
Quoted early into the 28-page filing is the late Hunter S. Thompson, who once described the music industry as “a cruel and shallow money trench” while joking at the time that there’s “also a negative side.” The filing goes on to cite entries from Drake’s catalog as an example of alleged streaming fraud on the platform, arguing that such practices, if proven, leads to “massive financial harm” to artists and other rights-holders.
As for the Drake-centered claims made in the complaint, the plaintiff is said to “be informed and believes” that an unspecified “examination” of his music points to what’s argued as “abnormal VPN usage,” among other allegations.
“For instance, Plaintiff is informed and believes that while the average Spotify listener listens to 10 songs per day, a massive amount of the accounts listening to Drake’s music listened exclusively to Drake’s music for 23 hours a day,” the complaint alleges as one such example.
In short, the complaint claims that Spotify has shown a “failure to prevent streaming fraud.” When reached for comment by Complex, however, a Spotify spokesperson vehemently denied the nature of claims while noting that the company is unable to directly comment on pending litigation.
“We cannot comment on pending litigation,” a Spotify spokesperson told Complex on Monday, Nov. 3. “However, Spotify in no way benefits from the industry-wide challenge of artificial streaming. We heavily invest in always-improving, best-in-class systems to combat it and safeguard artist payouts with strong protections like removing fake streams, withholding royalties, and charging penalties.”
The Spotify spokesperson continued: “Our systems are working: In a case from last year, one bad actor was indicted for stealing $10,000,000 from streaming services, only $60,000 of which came from Spotify, proving how effective we are at limiting the impact of artificial streaming on our platform.”
Spotify defines an artificial stream as “a stream that doesn’t reflect genuine user listening intent.” In a guide available for artists, seen here, the streaming platform cautions against engaging with “marketing and promotional services” that promise streams and playlist placements for a fee, calling them “scams.”