Is Spotify being sued for fake streams? Lawsuit claims bots inflated Drake’s 37 billion plays

Spotify faces a fresh legal challenge. The lawsuit claims the platform lets fake streams pump up artist numbers. It points to Drake's 37 billion plays as a prime example. Rolling Stone first broke the news about this complaint. It says Spotify turned a blind eye to widespread bot activity. This activity boosted the rapper's total streams and royalties.

A new lawsuit against Spotify has singled out Drake, claiming the platform allows bots to inflate numbers

The suit says a "substantial percentage" of the rapper's 37 billion streams were "inauthentic" pic.twitter.com/CRYh5LoKqM

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) November 5, 2025

The lawsuit states that Spotify pays artists based on their slice of total streams. It argues that fake numbers give some artists a bigger payout. This cuts into the share for other artists. The suit also claims that the company "knows or should know" about "a big chunk" of fake streams linked to bot networks. 

“Every month, under Spotify’s watchful eye, billions of fraudulent streams are generated,” the lawsuit states. It also argues that the “mass scale” issue has caused harm to legitimate artists, writers, and producers while generating additional revenue for Drake and his company, Frozen Moments. The filing contends that Spotify overlooked these patterns for its own financial benefit.

Spotify denied those allegations in a statement.

“We cannot comment on pending litigation,” a spokesperson said. “However, Spotify in no way benefits from the industry-wide challenge of artificial streaming. We heavily invest in best-in-class systems to combat it… like removing fake streams, withholding royalties, and charging penalties.”

Lawsuit alleges bot-driven streaming activity on Spotify

The lawsuit alleges that the suspected botting took place from January 2022 to September 2025. It points out proof like "unusual VPN use" hiding location info, and focuses on a four-day stretch in 2024. During this time, 250,000 plays of Drake's "No Face" came from Turkey but seemed to start in the UK.

The lawsuit also claims that Drake's music was played in areas with few or no people, and some accounts streamed his songs almost nonstop. It points out that a small fraction of users - less than 2% - accounted for about 15% of his total plays. This suggests unusual activity compared to other popular artists.

This legal action comes at a time when there's growing worry about fake streams on music platforms. Twitch has faced similar claims about inflated viewer numbers that give bot-driven channels an unfair edge over real ones.

Spotify remains the sole defendant in the case, which argues that the company’s efforts to fight fraud are “nothing more than window dressing, inadequate at best.”

“To satisfy constant pressure from shareholders to grow the business and increase stock prices, Spotify needs an ever-expanding population of users to engage on its platform,” the filing adds.

In a follow-up statement, Spotify reiterated its stance against fake streaming.

"We heavily invest in always-improving, best-in-class systems to combat it and safeguard artist payouts with strong protections like removing fake streams, withholding royalties, and charging penalties,” the spokesperson said. “Our systems are working: In a case from last year, one bad actor was indicted for stealing $10,000,000 from streaming services, only $60,000 of which came from Spotify, proving how effective we are at limiting the impact of artificial streaming on our platform.”