Rolling Stone Magazine Exposing That Artists Did Pays For Fake Streams

[RAMROD 98,265]

The music industry is famous for being hyper-competitive, but in the summer of 2019, the biggest companies — from major labels to streaming services — briefly united around a common cause: signing a code of conduct condemning streaming manipulation, a practice that inflates artists’ numbers on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music and potentially reduces payouts for smaller acts.

 

“Streaming manipulation has been an unfortunate blight on the industry over the past few years,” declared John Phelan, director general of the International Confederation of Music Publishers. “There is a black market for pay-for-play.”

 

Not long after the code of conduct was signed, various members of the Blueprint Group — a high-powered management and distribution company that works with multiple Grammy-winning artists — hopped on a conference call with a digital marketer named Joshua Mack, according to an audio recording obtained by Rolling Stone. Two of Blueprint’s CEOs, Gee Roberson and Jean Nelson, the head of digital strategy, Bryan Calhoun, and the chief marketing officer, Al Branch, explored options for boosting an upcoming release from rapper G-Eazy, an artist they manage. “I want this to be big,” one member of G-Eazy’s team says on the call.

Mack tells Blueprint he can jack up artists’ streams — for a price. A salesman operating in an industry that treats hype as standard operating procedure, Mack claims to Blueprint that his “network” can generate “200 million streams a month” spread across its various music clients, a group that he alleges has included nearly a dozen well-known acts and prominent labels. The recording offers a rare glimpse into the shadowy world of third-party companies operating in the music industry, attempting to seduce artists, managers, or labels by promising to manufacture millions of streams.

Digital marketers say that some streaming manipulation resembles old-school radio payola: Third parties build or gain control of playlists or networks of playlists on a platform like Spotify and then accept payment from artists or their teams for placing songs in those lists. (Though unlike payola, there is no Federal Communications Commission regulation of streaming manipulation.)

 

Full article at Source:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/digital-marketing-streaming-manipulation-1138529/

 

G-Eazy wyd??

Not impossible more of those newer soundcloud rappers also in on this, we been knew

[Fingerella 3,170]

Nicki Monaj was right all this tome about payola

[Lucas 21,481]

Nothing surprising... Also Jay-Z's Tidal was exposed & sued for stealing streams of non-popular artists to boost the streams of the bigger names but because it's Jay-Z and Beyonce nobody cared 

[Supersonic 49,376]

On the recording, Mack promises that he can play a crucial role in hitting commercial targets. In G-Eazy’s case, he claims to Blueprint that he can deliver 50 percent more album-equivalent units — a music-industry measure that combines sales and streams — on top of whatever the rapper could earn otherwise. The callers decide that G-Eazy can amass around 20,000 units on an EP opening week. “With us,” Mack says, “you’ll do 30 [thousand].”

He tells Blueprint that the total cost of this effort would be between $30,000 and $50,000. In the 3BMD sales deck obtained by Rolling Stone, the company offers 1 million YouTube streams for $12,000 and comparable rates for Spotify and Apple Music. (YouTube did not respond to a request for comment.) The deck also claims that 3BMD has had a hand in more than 100 hits on Billboard‘s Hot 100.

Girl.....

[RAMROD 98,265]

3 minutes ago, Supersonic said:

On the recording, Mack promises that he can play a crucial role in hitting commercial targets. In G-Eazy’s case, he claims to Blueprint that he can deliver 50 percent more album-equivalent units — a music-industry measure that combines sales and streams — on top of whatever the rapper could earn otherwise. The callers decide that G-Eazy can amass around 20,000 units on an EP opening week. “With us,” Mack says, “you’ll do 30 [thousand].”

He tells Blueprint that the total cost of this effort would be between $30,000 and $50,000. In the 3BMD sales deck obtained by Rolling Stone, the company offers 1 million YouTube streams for $12,000 and comparable rates for Spotify and Apple Music. (YouTube did not respond to a request for comment.) The deck also claims that 3BMD has had a hand in more than 100 hits on Billboard‘s Hot 100.

Girl.....

 

No wonder he is unheared of lately, maybe feeling shame 

[bionic 38,759]

Is this modern payola

[ThisGuyTony 24,368]

Jay-Z and Beyoncé at Tidal headquarters this morning:

[Runway 27,876]

Nicki and Beyonce’s fake tidal streams rn: 

 

[Aphasic 4,033]

Can ANYTHING be trusted? I truly deeply believe that Gaga is probably the only artist who cares more about her music rather than the numbers (I know people can argue the opposite) but Lady Gaga literally left her latest album to focus on other projects and I'm sure she didn't mind having 1 billion streams or 1 million. She's shown how much of kind and honest person one can humanly be.

[Chromatography 9,694]

5 hours ago, Lucas said:

Nothing surprising... Also Jay-Z's Tidal was exposed & sued for stealing streams of non-popular artists to boost the streams of the bigger names but because it's Jay-Z and Beyonce nobody cared 

jayz and beyoncé are scummy af but no one wants to talk about it 

[Guest Adarsh]

Didn’t they also expose Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran for bribing radios? Rolling Stone is doing all the juicy exposés omg 

[BUtterfield 8 38,894]

Responding to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment, Mack acknowledged that he spoke with Blueprint Group, but he declined to answer a list of specific questions related to claims he made on the phone call, saying that he doesn’t recall the details. He also noted that the call was a sales presentation, “and it is possible that some statements may have been exaggerated.” On the audio recording, for example, Mack claims to have worked with a global superstar and hired “the right team in every country across the world” to help one of her rollout campaigns. In his statement to Rolling Stone, however, he now says that he “never worked with” that artist.

Who is it?