IFPI and 24 music companies and industry bodies launched the Streaming Integrity Initiative (SII) on 14 September 2026 in London, establishing a set of baseline practices to prevent, detect and respond to streaming fraud. IFPI represents more than 8,000 record company members worldwide.
The initiative aims to protect artists, songwriters and fans from manipulated plays that divert royalty revenue away from legitimate rights holders.
Signatories and Commitments
The following organisations are supporting the initiative:
- 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
The initiative sets five baseline commitments designed to strengthen prevention, improve detection, support enforcement action and increase collaboration across the industry.
The organisations behind the initiative are asking distributors, digital service providers, industry bodies and other stakeholders to support SII and strengthen the sector’s collective response to streaming fraud.
How Streaming Fraud Operates
Streaming fraud occurs when digital music services are manipulated to produce revenue from plays that are not genuine. The practice frequently operates at scale, eroding trust in streaming platforms and diverting royalty income away from artists, songwriters, record labels, music publishers and other participants in the music economy.
Typically, bad actors misuse technology to dupe fans by uploading tracks intended for fraud to digital service providers (DSPs), including via music distribution services. These actors then deploy armies of bots to generate artificial plays and siphon money from royalty pools, diluting legitimate artists’ share and reducing their compensation.
The initiative identifies music distribution services as a key entry point to the digital music ecosystem, with the ability to stop fraudulent content before it reaches streaming platforms.
The SII follows the broader End Streaming Fraud campaign, which IFPI and major music companies launched to draw attention to the growing threat of streaming fraud. With artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools becoming more accessible, coordinated prevention and detection measures are increasingly necessary, the group said.
Industry Response
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 of 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.”
