Streaming Manipulation
You cannot engage in any activity designed to artificially increase streams, including but not limited to:
Bots or automated streaming
Click farms
Paid streaming services guaranteeing plays
Artificial playlist placement services
Strategies involving hundreds or thousands of short tracks designed to exploit payment models
Audio-Based Fraud Signals
Some release structures are commonly associated with fraudulent activity and will be flagged for review:
Sped-up or slowed-down versions of existing tracks modified primarily to evade Content ID detection.
Short functional tracks between 30 and 60 seconds designed to accumulate plays quickly. Spotify penalizes this type of content severely.
Looped audio - content that repeats in a loop to artificially inflate listening duration.
Near-silent or inaudible tracks inserted into a catalog to generate plays with minimal actual listening.
ISRC reuse - assigning an existing ISRC from an older recording to a new audio file in order to inherit its streaming history. This is considered fraudulent misrepresentation and will result in immediate action.
How We Detect Fraud After Release
limbo monitors catalog activity on an ongoing basis. The following patterns may trigger an investigation:
Sudden spikes in streams from a single IP address, an unlikely geographic location, or a single device type (e.g. 10,000 plays from a small town in one day).
Listening behavior that does not match human patterns, such as accounts streaming content 24/7 without interruption.
Abnormal stream-to-listener or stream-to-save ratios reported by DSPs.
If we open an investigation, we will contact you and ask you to provide evidence of legitimate promotion activity (marketing campaigns, social media activity, etc.). You are expected to respond promptly and transparently.
Consequences
Artificial streaming may lead to:
Removal of releases
Withholding of royalties
Suspension or termination of your account
DSPs including Spotify and YouTube may impose their own sanctions independently of any action taken by limbo. These sanctions are reflected in your Scorecard (−2 points for artificial streams with confirmed penalties).
Your Responsibility
You are responsible for all streaming activity associated with your releases. If you hire third-party marketing or promotion services, make sure they do not use any of the techniques listed above. limbo is not able to waive penalties caused by third-party services acting on your behalf.