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An odd discovery on Spotify

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Re: An odd discovery on Spotify

#51

Post by quercusa »

w_for_wumbo wrote: post #27
tigerBL00D wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I listened to the playlist and it's definitely the same song over and over again with slight tweaks. Imagine finding dozens of blogs where posts are all the same, but with very slight changes to vocabulary used in each blog.

I listened to the playlist too and it's definitely the same song with small variations. Imagine finding dozens of threads where comments are all the same, but with very slight changes of words used in each comment.

I'm sure that would never happen.

Re: An odd discovery on Spotify

#52

Post by nerdponx »

usednet wrote: post #28

People have been noticing this a lot recently but what nobody seems to know is that this is a form of money laundering/“scamming.” I know because I used to be active on crime forums and talked to some of the people who engineered this scheme. People will set up fake Spotify artist accounts with stolen identities and bank accounts, pay a musician for songs that pass as music, and then bot millions of streams on them.…

And now as far as we can tell there's a cottage industry built around algorithmically-appealing (and probably algorithmically-generated) mood music. What a weird outcome.

Re: An odd discovery on Spotify

#53

Post by dashwehacct »

w_for_wumbo wrote: post #27
tigerBL00D wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I listened to the playlist and it's definitely the same song over and over again with slight tweaks. Imagine finding dozens of blogs where posts are all the same, but with very slight changes to vocabulary used in each blog.

I listened to the playlist too and it's definitely the same song with small variations. Imagine finding dozens of threads where comments are all the same, but with very slight changes of words used in each comment.

I listened to that playlist as well and it is nearly the same song with slight variations. Imagine finding dozens of threads where comments are all the same, but with very small changes of phrasing used in each comment.

Re: An odd discovery on Spotify

#54

Post by nerdponx »

dj_mc_merlin wrote: post #35
DecoPerson wrote: post #7

In the “Release Radar” generated for me last week, there was a 40 second song consisting of rhythmic mechanical noises with a strange title and album art of an alien head. I didn’t like it at all. I think it was recommended to me because the publisher listed its artist as “Fanny Mendelssohn” — a classical composer whose work I definitely enjoy and have probably pressed “Like” a few times on — even though the song had…

> How on earth can Spotify distinguish real Fanny from fake Fanny? I can't tell if the post is serious or just a setup now.

To be fair, Spotify often conflates lesser-known artists that have the same name, particularly if they both inhabit some kind of "alt" genre, even if the two genres are totally different alt genres. Are they two different artists, or did they just change their sound?

Sometimes it's obvious (e.g. techno DJ and death metal band with same name), but sometimes it's not even easy for a human to decide (two unrelated indie bands from the early '10s with the same name).

So it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that it can be exploited for money laundering and/or algorithm revenue farming.

Re: An odd discovery on Spotify

#55

Post by randoglando »

jiveturkey wrote: post #13
DecoPerson wrote: post #7

In the “Release Radar” generated for me last week, there was a 40 second song consisting of rhythmic mechanical noises with a strange title and album art of an alien head. I didn’t like it at all. I think it was recommended to me because the publisher listed its artist as “Fanny Mendelssohn” — a classical composer whose work I definitely enjoy and have probably pressed “Like” a few times on — even though the song had…

> on account of being long-deceased and all posthumous releases are a thing

You know you're right

Re: An odd discovery on Spotify

#57

Post by thematrixturtle »

usednet wrote: post #28

People have been noticing this a lot recently but what nobody seems to know is that this is a form of money laundering/“scamming.” I know because I used to be active on crime forums and talked to some of the people who engineered this scheme. People will set up fake Spotify artist accounts with stolen identities and bank accounts, pay a musician for songs that pass as music, and then bot millions of streams on them.…

That almost makes sense, except that the money is paid out to the artist, so if you're using a stolen bank account, it remains 'dirty' after the round-trip.

What you'd want to do is use the dirty money for the bots that drive up the revenue, and the clean account for the artist to collect the royalties. This way the artist has plausible deniability, and if the bank account paying for the bots gets busted, it doesn't matter, you can get a new one.

Re: An odd discovery on Spotify

#59

Post by thematrixturtle »

p1necone wrote: post #48
CamperBob2 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, well, yeah? I'm obviously missing something important in the argument you're making.

I think you kinda have a point when it's one physical location presenting itself as multiple different options whose food would never belong on the same menu together at a dine in restaurant in the first place. Where I think it's shady is one kitchen pretending to be 10 different restaurants all serving the same type of food under different restaurant names, just to basically game the system into presenting them to m…

> multiple different options whose food would never belong on the same menu together at a dine in restaurant.

Any halfway decent hotel in a major Asian city will happily serve up (approximations of) Chinese stir-fries, Japanese sushi, Indian curries, Italian pizza and American burgers from its restaurant.

Re: An odd discovery on Spotify

#60

Post by CamperBob2 »

p1necone wrote: post #48
CamperBob2 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, well, yeah? I'm obviously missing something important in the argument you're making.

I think you kinda have a point when it's one physical location presenting itself as multiple different options whose food would never belong on the same menu together at a dine in restaurant in the first place. Where I think it's shady is one kitchen pretending to be 10 different restaurants all serving the same type of food under different restaurant names, just to basically game the system into presenting them to m…

My thinking is, if the food is good, I couldn't care less if they are selling sushi, lawn furniture, plumbing supplies, and car insurance out of the same building.

If the food is not good, see above.

And if Uber Eats is dumb enough to fall for 10 Indian restaurants with the same physical street address and controlling interest, well... party on.

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