How to Scam Spotify for Fun and Profit

Chances are you’ve never heard of Matt Farley but it’s possible that users of Spotify have–not that they wanted to.

Farley studied the algorithms used by Spotify to serve up songs into streams.  He discovered that people were often using specific words to search for songs–words that weren’t necessarily included in the titles of the songs.  What if he titled his songs with some of those words?

Farley started releasing songs with titles like “The Sorry Apology Song” and “Song About Sydney, New South Wales.”  He also came up with tracks named after Zooey Deschannel, Jon Hamm and Benedict Cumberbatch. Would the algorithms pick up his tracks for streams?

They did.  And because artists are paid on a per-listen and per-download basis, Farley started making some good coin from Spotify, even though his music wasn’t very good.

How much?  The Guardian reports that he’s earned over  £13,000 a year for sharing 14,000 songs.  Clever, no?

Read more at Gigwise.

Liked it? Take a second to support Alan Cross on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

Leave a Comment