Influencers have long been known to buy fake followers to boost their visibility, but there is growing evidence that artists are doing the same by cheating on their stream counts (streaming). In Quebec as elsewhere, the phenomenon would be especially widespread in the world of rap, the most popular genre on the Internet. What question the popularity of certain artists of the hour.
Buying YouTube views is child’s play. A simple search on the Web allows you to fall in less than two clicks on a myriad of sites where we are offered to artificially increase the number of views on the video of our choice. The duty tried the experiment. For $15, we could add 1000 views to any video. Buying 25,000 would have cost $140 and a little. The same offer for the Spotify platform was detailed at substantially the same price.
“There are far too many songs being uploaded on the platforms, so the fake stream is a way to stand out. For an artist just starting out, it allows you to get your head above water and reach a threshold of visibility. It exists in all styles, but in rap, it’s obvious, ”sums up Suzanne Lortie, a professor at UQAM’s School of Media who studies these listening platforms.
Artists who build their following don’t do it to make more money, at least not in the short term. Whether an artist has 10,000, 100,000 or a million streams, he only collects crumbs from these platforms. “The idea is rather to have the recognition of the industry. Record labels, festival promoters and radio programmers are all looking for the rare pearl in young artists. […] But it’s also a way to get noticed by the algorithms [des plateformes] and increase their chances of being showcased,” says Professor Lortie.
Monstrous or illusory success?
In the world of rap — and gangsta rap, a fortiori — there is a whole war of egos, in which everyone prides themselves on being the one who attracts the most views. On YouTube, it is not uncommon for clips of sulphurous Quebec rappers who have no media exposure and who have never been programmed in festivals to collect several hundred thousand views. It’s often much more than, for example, the videos of Hubert Lenoir, yet one of the most publicized artists in Quebec.
A distortion that Mr. and Mrs. Everybody might find suspicious, those who are not necessarily familiar with “queb rap”. But for Ariel Block Brisebois, one of the leaders of the record company Joy Ride Records, this should not be seen as proof that the figures are completely false: “The media is not connected to reality. And even if they were, it wouldn’t do any good. We may talk about Hubert Lenoir on television, but people who watch TV are 60 years old and don’t give a damn about Hubert Lenoir. And if we were talking about rap, they wouldn’t care either. The reality is that everything happens on the Internet. This is where people go to discover new artists. It’s not on TV or radio anymore. »
That being said, Ariel Block Brisebois recognizes that the purchase of fake plays is commonplace in the rap world in Quebec. Joy Ride Records, which notably represents rappers Loud and White-B, claims to have never endorsed this practice; rather, we point the finger at the big record companies, “who have unlimited means” and who would not hesitate to give a boost to their foals who are struggling to take off.
Hard to detect
A study published Monday in France by the National Center for Music (CNM) attests that just over 1% of plays on Spotify in France were found to be fraudulent in 2021 and were subsequently corrected by the platform. However, the CNM suggests that this rate is possibly greatly underestimated, and that the purchase of false wiretaps could allow the laundering of “income from illegal or even criminal activities”.
One thing is certain, the practice largely concerns hip-hop. Of the 10,000 most popular songs on Spotify in France, nearly 85% of false plays were listed in this category, while rap accounts for just over 50% of the music consumed on the platform.
In Quebec too, rap is a hit on streaming music platforms. According to figures from the Observatoire de la culture, four of the ten most listened to Quebec artists in the province perform in this style. In 2022, the controversial Enima was the third most popular Quebec artist there, after the Cowboys Fringants and Charlotte Cardin. According to our information, players in the Quebec music industry then questioned the veracity of this success, especially since Enima has never benefited from a real platform because of its many troubles with the law.
We may talk about Hubert Lenoir on television, people who watch TV are 60 years old and don’t care, about Hubert Lenoir
Kevin Calixte, podcast host Rapolitik, does not doubt for its part the authenticity of the triumph of Enima nor that of the other rappers who are popular in Quebec. ” The fake streamit is not so much about top rappers, like Enima, Souldia or Loud, but rather those who are between. There are people who already have 600,000 views and who want to make the million, then they buy the rest. Does that mean that their success is completely fake ? No. But is it believable? No more”, illustrates the one who calls himself “Keke” on the rap scene.
Live streaming disqualified?
Faced with audience figures that are sometimes falsified (even by well-established foreign rappers), festival organizers are wary. “We don’t look at all streams when programming an artist. We look at his ticket sales, his social networks, but not that, ”reports Olivier Primeau, promoter of the Metro Metro hip-hop festival.
For its part, ADISQ does not currently see the purchase of plays on platforms as a problem in Quebec: no such situation has yet been brought to its attention.
“So it’s hard to say if it exists here too. But if this is the case, the phenomenon should not be large-scale, because listening to Quebec music online is starving,” notes general manager Ève Paré.