Is Spotify Attacking Independent Artists or Is There a Ghost in the Machine?

Spotify is using weird rules to fine and de-platform independent artists from its service — are these honest mistakes or is something more nefarious going on?
 
Last week, Andrew’s band, One Hundred Thousand, got a notice from its distributor that one song from its 2021 album was flagged for “bot activity” and that the entire album was therefore being removed from Spotify, and all other digital streaming services as a penalty.
 
No one at Spotify appears to be concerned enough to respond to our requests for help and there is no apparent appeals process for artists who say they had nothing to do with the alleged bots.
 
OHT is not alone.
 
A number of independent artists are complaining that the world’s largest digital streaming music platform is throttling them for “bot activity” on their catalogs, removing their music and charging them bogus penalties.
 
Reddit is filling up with threads on the subject, and Spotify’s silence is only fueling belief that this is part of the company’s strategy to gradually replace independent music with A.I.-generated slop to reduce royalty payouts and bolster its profits.
 
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(Episode 39.)