Got a DistroKid artificial streaming notice? What it means and what to do

What the notice means

DistroKid’s help page on the subject says an artificial streaming notice means Spotify has told DistroKid that most of the streams on one or more of your tracks are artificial. DistroKid describes itself as passing that message on. It says it has been given no information beyond what Spotify provided, and that the same thing happens to tracks at every distributor.

So the notice names the track. It does not name the playlist, the promoter or the date range the streams came from, and DistroKid says it cannot add that detail. Finding the source is left to you.

What DistroKid says can happen

DistroKid’s page “What is Artificial Streaming?” says that if the majority of the streams on a release are found to be artificial, the music will likely be removed from streaming services and the royalties earned from those streams will not be paid. It adds that you may receive a warning from DistroKid and that your account may be closed.

DistroKid also republishes a message from Spotify warning that a streaming service may remove an entire catalogue permanently when play counts were boosted by the artist or by a third party hired on the artist’s behalf.

Spotify’s separate fee of €10 per track per month, charged to distributors since 1 April 2024 when more than 90% of a track’s streams are flagged, is not mentioned on the DistroKid pages we read. If you are worried about it, check your DistroKid earnings statements and ask DistroKid support directly.

Why DistroKid points at playlists and promoters

DistroKid’s notice page says it is likely that you, or someone you work with, used a marketing service that generated fraudulent streams or got your track added to playlists that did, and that you probably did not know. Its artificial streaming page goes further: a playlist can send artificial streams even when you never paid for the placement, because some playlist owners grow their lists through streaming fraud.

Its own advice is blunt. Do not pay for any service that offers more streams. Do not pay for any service that offers more followers. Do not pay for any service that offers playlist placement.

The order to work through it

Keep a copy of every message you send while you do this.

• Write down the tracks named in the notice and the date you received it.
• In Spotify for Artists, open each flagged track and list the playlists it has been on. A playlist only appears once three unique listeners have played your track from it, and the view covers the last 12 months.
• Check each playlist for bot-farm patterns. DistroKid’s page links artist.tools’ bot checker for single playlists. The SpotCheck artificial streaming warning scan takes up to 50 links at once and ranks them, which helps when a track sits on dozens of lists.
• Ask the curators of the risky playlists to remove your track, and report the ones you cannot get removed with Spotify’s Playlist Reporter, which DistroKid also links.
• Stop any campaign that guarantees streams, followers or placements, and tell DistroKid about it through the feedback form on its notice page.

If your release was taken down

DistroKid’s notice page says that if you are not using promotional services, you can re-upload the song to Spotify with the same ISRC. The new upload gets a new Spotify URI, which DistroKid calls a fresh start. The upload starts from distrokid.com/new.

The page makes that offer to artists who are not using promotional services, so clear up the source first, or the new upload can end up on the same playlists. Ask DistroKid support before you delete or re-release anything.

What to keep for DistroKid

Keep the list of playlists you found, the scan results, your removal requests and Playlist Reporter submissions, and the dates of each. If you write to DistroKid support, a short factual message with that record is more use than a single line saying the streams were not yours. On the Pro plan SpotCheck drafts that message from your scan.

FAQ

More guides

• How to tell if a Spotify playlist is fake or bot-inflated
• Is paying for Spotify playlist promotion worth it?
• How the SpotCheck bot-risk score works
• Best tools to detect fake Spotify playlists in 2026
• How to verify a Spotify curator is legit
• You got an artificial streaming warning. Here is what it means and what to do next
• How to find the playlists behind an artificial streaming flag
• Spotify’s €10 artificial streaming fee: who pays, and what distributors do about it
• Can you check a Spotify song for bot streams?

Check a playlist before you pay

The Spotify bot checker scores any public playlist from 0 to 100 for bot risk, free and with no Spotify login. Holding a distributor notice? The artificial streaming warning scan checks every playlist on the track at once. See plans.