The problem of being unable to get noticed on Spotify, in turn, can make the concept of purchasing followers look like a fast and simple fix.
Initially, it seems like a massive achievement when your number of followers rises to ten thousand. But the information about the way that Spotify really operates is a much different story. The examples of independent artists have proven that, although the purchase of followers alters the figure on your profile, it usually causes an unseen domino effect that can freeze your career in several years. To get a sense of why this is the case, it is necessary to consider how the computer program used by Spotify- the algorithm- responds when it realizes that your new followers are not real people.
The Sudden Drop in Natural Discovery
Spotify focuses on a feature called Discover Weekly, whereby they present your music to new fans who are actually interested in you, but it all relies on how your existing followers act. In case studies, it is revealed that, in purchasing followers, you are adding thousands of dead followers who do not even listen to your songs. Since these bogus followers give no streams, the algorithm of Spotify thinks that even your best fans are not interested in your new music. This causes a huge decline in organic reach, since the system no longer suggests your music to the real users, burying your music in a mountain of fake data.
The Nightmare of Poisoned Audience Data
With real followers, Spotify will consider their taste to identify other individuals who will like your music, but the fake followers spoil this information. Here is an illustration that, in case the purchased followers are bots or accounts that tend to hear a random noise or any other music irrelevant to your genre, Spotify will begin to recommend your music to those accounts rather than the intended audience. The artists who have experienced this usually discover that, despite trying to create real advertisements in the future, their targeting fails miserably since the information the platform gives about fans also liking is totally false. This proves it is nearly impossible to get actual fans since the system now does not know who your music is being catered to anymore.
Source: Orion
The biggest danger identified in case studies is that Spotify and music distributors are quite skilled at identifying artificial growth. When they find that you have suddenly increased the number of followers that do not correspond to the number of streams you have or the place of the listeners, they might flag your account as a case of fraud. Spotify will not pay you any of the royalties you have earned in most instances, even the money of your actual fans, as a punishment. Other artists have also claimed that they lost hundreds of dollars in revenue because their whole profile was put on hold due to a modest amount of money on the purchase of fake followers to promote their image.
The Risk of Permanent Account Deletion
The most radical implication that was found in real-life examples is a complete deactivation of a profile and the music produced by an artist. Spotify is very strict with botting, and in case the program detects that your growth is not natural, it can remove your entire discography without even notifying you. After a song has been dropped due to false statistics, it is highly unlikely that it will reappear on the streaming site, and many distributors will not resort to collaborating with such an artist in the future. This implies that a single purchase may result in losing years of hard work permanently, and the artist will have to begin all over again under a new name and without history.
The “Hollow Profile” and Loss of Trust
Although you are not banned, the number of followers with such a low number of monthly listeners makes it easily noticeable by the industry professionals that it has a hollow appearance. Managers, playlist curators, and record labels have tools to check the follower/listener ratio of an artist to determine whether they are real. When they receive 50,000 followers and 100 people listen per month, they will immediately understand that the numbers are false. This kills your reputation and will leave any real working person not willing to work with you, because it is an indication that you are more interested in appearing famous than developing a career.
Conclusion
This is the reality behind acquiring followers on Spotify because it will provide you with a temporary ego boost at the expense of your future success. Although it is easy to be tempted to use a fake follower as a shortcut to become a star, the statistics show that fake followers, on the contrary, serve as a wall between you and good listeners. Regular releases, actual social media activities, and the application of legitimate tools such as the ones offered by Spotify, i.e., its own Discovery Mode, are the best ways to grow on Spotify. Always better to have ten true fans who will like your music compared to one million fake fans who will never press the play button.
Sources
https://www.artist.tools/post/uncovering-fake-spotify-streams-to-protect-your-music
