Re:US Man Given Prison Sentence for Bot-Farming Music Streams
by kurmouk on Thursday October 08, 2026 @09:00PM
(#50014678)
He is still defrauding the streaming platform. It is like creating a userbase just to get investments in your company.
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Re:US Man Given Prison Sentence for Bot-Farming Music Streams
by mrheosuper on Thursday October 08, 2026 @11:54PM
(#50015805)
If that "created" userbase give you the similar profit of "real" userbase, i dont see what's wrong.
Re:US Man Given Prison Sentence for Bot-Farming Music Streams
by zbentley on Friday October 09, 2026 @08:10AM
(#50019362)
It wasn’t giving Spotify similar profit, though. Their subscription pricing assumes both a) ads and b) that on average listeners won’t listen more than a certain amount, and will listen relatively broadly such that a single artist isn’t disproportionately rewarded (and thus lots of different artists find it lucrative to be on the platform, increasing its appeal).
In short, this isn’t a “cool infinite money hack” whereby you can pay a subscription fee and make it back with dividends as an artist. Instead, it’s https://xkcd.com/1494/
Re:US Man Given Prison Sentence for Bot-Farming Music Streams
by RobRivera on Friday October 09, 2026 @08:42AM
(#50019672)
You need help understanding why spotify paying a man for fake users isn't being defrauded?
Re:US Man Given Prison Sentence for Bot-Farming Music Streams
by nomilk on Friday October 09, 2026 @02:06AM
(#50016591)
Didn't reddit famously do this.
Re:US Man Given Prison Sentence for Bot-Farming Music Streams
by rebolek on Friday October 09, 2026 @02:23AM
(#50016707)
If he created a startup to do the exactly same thing, he would be a millionaire.
Re:US Man Given Prison Sentence for Bot-Farming Music Streams
by RobRivera on Friday October 09, 2026 @08:43AM
(#50019686)
Matter of factly, if he did create a bot farm for hire, and NOT get paid for streaming, but paid just to scale the bots FOR other people, yes lol
Re:US Man Given Prison Sentence for Bot-Farming Music Streams
by genxy on Friday October 09, 2026 @12:07PM
(#50022572)
That startup exists already it is an A16Z thing.
Re:US Man Given Prison Sentence for Bot-Farming Music Streams
by kennywinker on Friday October 09, 2026 @02:35AM
(#50016811)
Or like streaming artists music to users while not paying the artists.