Music industry
Association: consistently curb streaming scams
“We have successfully carried out many procedures to curb such manipulations”: The managing director of the Federal Association of the Music Industry, Florian Drücke. Photo: Annette Riedl / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Audio streaming is huge business that has saved a troubled industry. But there is fraud and manipulation against which the music industry association in Germany intends to take action.
The music industry sees an urgent need for action to put a stop to fraud, for example with “fake streams” in this country.
“We were the first to tackle this from Germany and successfully carried out many procedures to curb such manipulations,” said the chairman of the Federal Association of the Music Industry (BVMI), Florian Drücke, of the German Press Agency in Berlin.
This is happening “because we as an industry cannot watch and accept how trust in this marketplace is eroding”. That is why the association, which according to its own information represents around 200 producers and companies with around 80 percent share of the German music market, is “in intensive exchange with artists and their managements”. For sustained success, “clear support for the platforms” against click fraud in what is by far the most important market segment of music streaming is necessary.
The BVMI had published legal successes against manipulation in the previous year. The Berlin Regional Court had issued an injunction against the operator of a website, which resulted in an omission. According to BVMI, the Germany-based website “offered the generation of fake streams that illegally increase the frequency with which a piece of music was actually heard via an audio streaming service”.
The international music industry umbrella organization IFPI emphasized at the time: “Those who create music must be paid fairly and correctly for their work and investments. This is prevented by the manipulation of streams – among other things by damaging the accuracy of the charts and preventing license payments to music creators. ” The “Fair Share Initiative” had previously denounced such manipulations.
In the ongoing dispute about a fair distribution of streaming revenues between artists, labels and music platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music, the BVMI will continue to hold back. “As an industry association, we cannot intervene in business – not least for reasons of competition law,” said Drücke. “We are not at the negotiating table, we do not know the individual contracts and are not allowed to help shape them.” The members of the umbrella association are “certainly not the masters of the machines that use the platforms for their calculations”.
“Fair Share” is arguing with music labels for a change in the distribution of the streaming cake in favor of the artists. The aim of the initiative with figureheads like Peter Maffay or Sarah Connor: a more transparent distribution model that rewards the actual use of music (user-centered billing). This means that the proceeds from each individual streaming subscription would be distributed to precisely those artists whose music the subscriber has listened to, and would not end up in a large distribution pot.