A new class action lawsuit in the United States is accusing Spotify of enabling large-scale streaming fraud on its platform, with rapper Drake allegedly benefiting most from the artificial boost in plays.
The lawsuit, filed in California, claims that billions of inauthentic streams were used to inflate Drake's presence on the platform between 2022 and 2025, which, in turn, reduced the royalty pool available to other musicians.
The filing states that by allowing fraudulent plays to occur, Spotify unfairly redirected earnings away from smaller and independent artists who rely on accurate streaming counts for income.
Spotify Reportedly Allowed Bot Streams
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Drake is not accused of personally organising the manipulation, but is named as the primary beneficiary of the alleged practice. Spotify is the sole defendant, with the suit arguing that the company knowingly allowed the problem to grow while using inflated engagement figures to attract investors.
The lawsuit was brought forward by rapper RBX, who is also known for his work alongside Snoop Dogg.
RBX alleges that Drake's roughly 37 billion Spotify streams between January 2022 and September 2025 were not genuine listener plays. Instead, they were produced through large networks of automated bot accounts. These fraudulent streaming patterns were visible through what he describes as 'abnormal VPN usage', wherein streams appear to come from one country while being routed through another.
In one instance, hundreds of thousands of streams for a Drake track appeared to originate in Turkey but were digitally mapped to the United Kingdom to conceal their true source.
The result of these bot streams was a distortion of Spotify's pro rata payment system. In this model, royalties are distributed according to an artist's share of total platform streams. If bot activity increases an artist's share of streams, the artist receives a larger portion of the payout pool. The suit argues that this meant smaller artists lost income they otherwise would have earned.
Spotify Denies Benefitting from Bot Streams
The music streaming company formally denied the suggestion that it profits from fraudulent streams.
Spotify maintained that it invests heavily in systems designed to detect and remove artificial plays and penalises accounts involved. A spokesperson cited by The Hollywood Reporter pointed to a case from the previous year where a streaming fraud operation reportedly stole the equivalent of around £8.2 million ($10 million), but only around £49,000 ($60,000) of that came from Spotify.
Spotify removes known fake streams, withholds payments tied to suspected manipulation, and may apply penalties to offenders. The company stated that it does not benefit from having bot accounts inflate numbers because it undermines confidence in the industry and harms artists.
As for Drake, neither he nor his team orchestrated the alleged boosting of plays.
RBX's Lawsuit Against Spotify
The case is in its early stages and will likely move through preliminary hearings over the coming months.
RBX will need to provide verifiable evidence that the data used to identify fraud streams is accurate and independently sourced. If the court finds grounds for the case to proceed, discovery could force Spotify to disclose details of its fraud detection systems.
