IFPI has announced the launch of the Streaming Integrity Initiative (SII), a new industry commitment to prevent, detect and respond to streaming fraud and protect artists, songwriters and fans.
The initiative establishes a set of baseline practices for music distribution services and other industry players, with five key commitments designed to strengthen prevention, improve detection, support enforcement action and increase collaboration across the industry.
Streaming fraud involves the manipulation of digital music services to generate revenue from plays that are not genuine. It often occurs at scale, undermining trust in streaming services and diverting royalties away from artists, songwriters, record labels, music publishers and others in the music economy.
How streaming fraud operates
Bad actors typically misuse technology to dupe fans by uploading tracks intended for fraud to digital service providers (DSPs), including via music distribution services. They then deploy armies of bots to generate artificial plays and siphon money from royalty pools, diluting legitimate artists’ share and reducing their compensation.
Music distributors are a key entry point to the digital music ecosystem and supply DSPs with content. The initiative recognises their ability to prevent fraudulent content from reaching streaming platforms.
Initial signatories
The following organisations are supporting the Streaming Integrity Initiative and its efforts to combat streaming fraud:
- Absolute Label Services
- ADA
- AWAL
- CD Baby
- CmdShft
- Ditto Music
- FUGA
- GoDigital
- HYBE
- IDOL
- IMPALA
- InnerCat Music Group
- Merlin
- Redeye
- Revelator
- RouteNote
- Secretly Distribution
- Symphonic
- Sony Music Group
- The Orchard
- Too Lost
- Universal Music Group
- Virgin Music Group
- Warner Music Group
Industry response
The SII builds on the wider End Streaming Fraud campaign, launched by IFPI and leading music companies to raise awareness of the threat posed by streaming fraud. As technology evolves and AI-powered tools become more widely available, robust fraud prevention and detection measures and coordinated action across the music ecosystem are more important than ever.
The organisations behind the initiative are calling on distributors, digital service providers, industry bodies and other stakeholders to support SII and help strengthen the industry’s collective response to streaming fraud.
Leadership comments
Victoria Oakley, CEO of IFPI, said: “Streaming fraud misleads fans and deprives legitimate artists and songwriters of income that should rightfully flow to them. This is theft, plain and simple. We welcome the leadership shown by the first distributors to publicly support the Streaming Integrity Initiative, and hope this leads to direct, effective and coordinated action to protect artists, songwriters and fans from streaming fraud.”
Sarah McNabb, Merlin’s Director of Content Integrity, said: “Tackling illegitimate activity effectively requires every part of the industry to move together. These commitments reflect Merlin’s own position and align closely with what Merlin already requires of its members. It’s encouraging to see so many of our members already putting their names to this announcement, and we’re glad to stand alongside IFPI in this initiative as it continues to grow.”
Helen Smith, IMPALA Executive Chair, said: “IMPALA’s Digital Music Plan adopted earlier this year set out our recommendations for growing the market and identified industry collaboration on a new scale as a top priority. With recommendations for DSPs and labels as well as distributors, working together on integrity, promoting human artistry and other key aspects across the whole chain is vital.”
Simon Wills, Managing Director, Absolute Label Service, said: “Combatting artificial streaming cannot be a reactive game of whack-a-mole, it demands intelligent, forward-looking technology paired with cross-industry collaboration. By integrating deep, multi-signal fraud detection into our music OS, Anthology, Absolute is enabling rightsholders to identify potential irregularities early. We fully support IFPI’s Streaming Integrity Initiative and are proud to champion a cleaner, fairer digital ecosystem for all artists and rightsholders.”
Further details are available on the End Streaming Fraud website.
