The IPFI and German music trade body BVMI won a victory in a legal case against a website that sold stream manipulation services. The organizations received an injuction against Followerschmiede.de. The site creates “plays” on digital service providers such as YouTube and Spotify that do not represent actual human listening. The injunction orders the site to discontinue the activity.
“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,” said IFPI CEO Frances Moore. “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.”
The case is part of a larger effort to combat inaccurate stream counts. The IFPI and its members signed on to an industry-wide effort to find and stop stream manipulation.