Russ Says Spotify Knows Which Artists Are Faking Streams

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Russ is one of the most outspoken artists against the entertainment business. The independent recording artist has expressed his frustrations with the music industry. Considering Drake’s legal proceedings with Universal Music Group and Spotify, he shared his thoughts.

On Friday (Dec. 20), Russ tweeted, “Spotify knows who’s faking their streams lol however, they’re not gonna ever [in my opinion] publicly expose any major labels due to potential consequences. Major labels could retaliate by pulling their top artists music from Spotify. That would obviously diminish Spotify’s value and attractiveness to subscribers.”

Later in the post, he stated, “Spotify just punishes them behind the scenes (removes fake streams and removes the song from playlists) because they prioritize (makes sense) maintaining their access to major label content over publicly confronting stream manipulation, which essentially makes them a ‘hostage’ of the major labels. Basically Spotify publicly outing major labels is a lose lose for everyone involved.”

The conversation came following more updates from Spotify and UMG making public statements regarding their pending legal proceedings with Drake. On Friday (Dec. 20), a spokesperson for the streaming service stated, “UMG and Spotify have never had any arrangement in which UMG ‘charged Spotify licensing rates 30 percent lower than its usual licensing rates for ‘Not Like Us’ in exchange for Spotify affirmatively recommending [‘Not Like Us’],’ including ‘to users who are searching for other songs and artists.’”

While known for having controversial takes on the music industry, fans are seemingly agreeing to his newest take. The conversation around fraudulent streaming has been on the rise since Drake submitted his legal petitions. After his controversial rap battle with Kendrick Lamar, Drake has been relatively quiet musically.

The pending case has seemingly put a pause on his future releases, including his joint album with fellow OVO member PARTYNEXTDOOR. The forthcoming R&B-leaning album has yet to be given a release date.