The difficulty of unbiased artists having their albums deleted from streaming providers on account of inaccurate streaming fraud claims has gone from an remoted incident affecting just a few unfortunate performers, to a rising epidemic. And as extra artists face this evolving drawback, assets for resolving the problem nonetheless stay out of attain for a lot of, whereas the outcomes may be existential for creators making an attempt to get their careers off the bottom.
One of many newest victims is singer/songwriter Grayson Jenkins from Muhlenberg County, KY. His most up-to-date album Nation Parables launched in late July continues to be up, fortunately. However his 2017 album Cityscapes and Countrysides was eliminated after lower than a 24 hours discover about bogus claims Jenkins was taking part in fraudulent streaming.
“It appears to be a rising situation with unbiased artists getting flagged for this type of factor, after which not having numerous avenues to vary it,” Grayson Jenkins tells Saving Nation Music. “The week I received the takedown discover, I believe my streaming numbers on Spotify have been 30,000 month-to-month. After which inside per week they have been down beneath 20,000. You’re employed your ass off all 12 months doing these to develop your stature that individuals use as a metric for reserving and different issues.”
Jenkins received the notification of the alleged unlawful streaming exercise on August twentieth. By the twenty first, the album was gone. The punitive nature of how distributors and streaming providers take care of these points, and don’t give performers the chance to reply is without doubt one of the most annoying issues about this development. Underground nation artists Slackeye Slim took his music down in June preemptively after studying the horror tales, and receiving warnings. Just like Slackeye Slim and others dealing with the problem, Grayson Jenkins used the service TuneCore to distribute the album.
“I get the notification, and I’ve received a rehearsal and a present. I paid TuneCore for his or her skilled membership with 24 hour customer support, which is what they promote. However by way of synthetic streaming claims, they simply reroute you to their pointers, and there’s no person I may even discuss to. And Spotify tells you to speak to your distributor.”
Jenkins now works with Symphonic for distribution, so fortunately his more moderen music has not been affected by the takedown. However the expertise has made Grayson rethink how he approaches his profession, and what he places worth in.
“It was an older album that was very formative for me and my band. It got here the identical 12 months I stop my job. It’s eight years previous now. If you have a look at the positives of streaming, it’s presupposed to be one thing that’s a gradual drip, and evergreen publicity, and other people can get connected to those songs over time. And while you take away that in a single day, it makes you query, ‘The place am I placing my inventory and my worth?’ Particularly when you haven’t any probability to reverse it earlier than it’s taken down.”
“My hope is that possibly we are able to get it reinstated. But it surely simply sucks to lose all these streams, work put in, and the attachment I’ve to these songs, and the attachment that different individuals have developed that I don’t even know. Whether or not it’s one individual, or ten individuals, or 100 individuals, that’s value one thing.”
Direct connection is what’s been within the forefront of my mind for some time, and I believe that is simply one other marker that possibly that’s the trail, not going for scale, however going for a crafted method of discovering my individuals and sticking with these individuals as an alternative of chasing virality and streaming numbers.”
Earlier in September, Saving Nation Music reported how the North Carolina-based band The Piedmont Boys had their 2020 album Nearly Dwelling was eliminated on August twentieth—the identical day Grayson Jenkins obtained his notification. Additionally on that very same day, the 2024 album World Well-known from singer/songwriter Anna Wescoat additionally distributed by TuneCore was pulled.
“I’m confused actually…Praying this may be rectified, as a result of my mind can not fathom why it even occurred to start with,” Anna Wescoat mentioned. “So a few years of arduous work went into this album, to not point out shut to 2 years of fundraising, over 10k very hard-earned {dollars}, to pay for it… I didn’t even get a notification or clarification or something as to why it’s been pulled. I’m gonna go cry now.”
Just like others, the scenario began when a particular track was flagged for fraudulent streaming exercise. However then inside 24 hours, the whole album was pulled, and never simply on Spotify, however each streaming service. Identical to Grayson Jenkins, Wescoat has knowledgeable artists account with TuneCore. Nevertheless in the case of this situation, artists are informed there will probably be no decision, their albums won’t be reinstated, and so they gained’t be allowed to talk to a human about it.
“Truthfully, it’s insulting as a result of I don’t even have the price range to make use of these promotional websites they’re speaking about,” Wescoat tells Saving Nation Music. “I needed to pay them an extra $15 to have it pulled down. It’s like a giant slap within the face saying they don’t care about us as a result of I do know that larger artists and labels have the help to the place they don’t should take care of this. We’re out right here making an attempt our greatest to create actual music, and it feels such as you’re getting stopped at each flip. It’s simply one other strategy to screw us over.”
The reality is that streaming fraud is an actual situation. However whereas it’s usually main artists on main labels perpetrating this fraud, unbiased artists are those paying the worth. Lately, Kevin Clancy of Barstool Sports activities talked to hip-hop DJ and character Bootleg Kev in regards to the observe.
“Each single artist that has ever put an album out by means of a significant file label, EVERY, it doesn’t should be a rapper, it might be a rock band, ALL of them, EVERY artist, there may be an quantity of botted shit,” Bootleg Kev claims. “What occurs is, these f–king labels have budgets that they work into their advertising price range. If you’re an artist that’s that large, and your music comes out, you can actually do any form of numbers and it’s by no means gonna get questioned.”
The Cam Pierce album A Thousand Lonely Horses was additionally pulled earlier in August, and as soon as once more after inaccurate claims of streaming fraud. The album made it on to Saving Nation Music’s Finest Albums So Far for 2025. In contrast to many others, Cam Pierce had used CD Child for his distribution, so although TuneCore is the first perpetrator, it’s taking place by means of different distribution providers as properly.
Moreover, Saving Nation Music is presently trying into the disappearance of Juliet McConkey’s 2020 album Disappearing Lady, and the catalog of conventional nation artist George Dearborne.
However there may be some excellent news. After Saving Nation Music posted its report on this points with The Piedomont Boys and Cam Pierce—and followers of those artists shared the article and created sufficient of a public stir—each Cam’s A Thousand Lonely Horses and The Piedmont Boys’ Nearly Dwelling have been reinstated on streaming providers.
Additionally, musician Benton Blount, who additionally occurs to be the County Council Chairman for Greenville County the place the Piedmont Boys are from, wrote a strongly worded letter to strain TuneCore to reverse the choice, and truly obtained a private response from a TuneCore lawyer, which flies within the face of the corporate’s proclamations that albums can’t be reinstated.
The difficulty for The Piedmont Boys and Cam Pierce is fortunately resolved, nevertheless it stays ongoing for Anna Wescoat, Grayson Jenkins, and certain extra unbiased performers making an attempt to make their manner by means of the world with their music.
“Clearly it’s a Spotify factor and a distributor factor. However higher than that, it’s simply the full comfort issue of how a lot do you personal? What controls you?” Grayson Jenkins says. “What possession do you’ve gotten over your individual trajectory? These are all issues I’m making an attempt to consider, and easy methods to continue to grow and never quit a lot to try this.”
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