As another comment [0] suggests, this is common at least in Sweden. I have it on first hand that a successful local rapper has the whole apartment full of phones streaming his songs. Floor, shelves, sofa, all full of phones.

I'm sure mixing it with bot traffic is also popular. I also assume that Spotify (et al) are more successful in filtering out bot traffic from central Asia than legit phones in the middle of the target group.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32560737