If for several years rap has been accused – sometimes by the rappers themselves – to resort to stream fraud to stay in the top positions or obtain certifications, the CNM report, released this Monday, offers for the first time solid figures to qualify this trend.
Because contrary to popular belief, all music genres are affected by false listening: hip-hop, pop/rock, classical, French chanson, and even ambient music.
The study of the National Music Center (CNM), commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, is the first in the world of this scale for streaming music. It provides an overview and detailed data on the manipulation of online wiretapping in France.
The result of a year of work in collaboration with three streaming platforms (Deezer, Spotify and Qobuz) and various distributors (Universal, Sony, Warner, Believe and Wagram), this 57-page document reveals that between one and three billion listeners online identified for the year 2021 is actually false (out of 100 billion songs listened to per year in France).
However, on Spotify, Deezer and Qobuz, most of the fraudulent streams identified are from the hip-hop/rap genre. A logical observation according to Romain Laleix, deputy general director of the CNM, “since it is the most listened to music in France”.
“But apart from the fraudulent broadcasts identified only in the rap segment, the genre is not proportionally more concerned than the others,” Romain Laleix told BFMTV.com.
The marginal genders are the most affected
In the detail of the data collected by the CNM, the fake views identified compared to the total number of views of hip-hop and rap titles represent only a very small percentage: 0.7% versus 1.2% for the French Songs category on Deezer for example.
In comparison, the CNM identifies other musical genres that are not widely listened to, but where the proportion of fraudulent transmissions is much higher, such as background music (4.8% on Deezer) or relaxation music (12.3% on Qobuz ) which, however, represent only a minuscule weight in terms of total listening (between 0 and 0.1% depending on the platform).
“This data leads us to believe that there are people who are uploading fake headlines, below the top 10,000 on all platforms, in the hope that they will go unnoticed and generate revenue,” says Romain Laleix.
And to add: “It allows you to put into perspective a kind of prejudice around rap that has been echoed for several years.”
What about undetected currents?
However, the CNM points out in its report an important element to take into account before reaching a hasty conclusion: contrary to what one might think, the false reproductions detected by the platforms do not affect the most popular artists (many times rappers). and they account for 80% (for Spotify and Deezer) in the “long tail”: the songs below the top 10,000.
In the top 10 of the most listened to songs, only 0.25% of the reproductions would be false on Spotify and 0.65% on Deezer, according to the CNM. Faced with this observation, Romain Laleix makes two hypotheses:
“Either the tops really don’t care about fraud, and that completely closes the rap debate, which is massively present in the tops, or there is an unidentified part of ‘fake streams’ in these tops, and in this case , the question takes a totally different turn,” he explains.
New study for 2024
These data also allow the CNM and the platforms to better identify the different practices behind the manipulation of wiretaps. “If today it is difficult for us to certify our assumptions, confides Romain Laleix, we can nevertheless say that, since the fake plays mainly concern titles below the top 10,000, they could be artists in search of notoriety who seek to exist in a plethora. of offers or Internet users who want to earn money with fake music.
In order to combat this fraud in the most effective way possible, the CNM would first of all like to propose that the players in the music industry (unions, platforms, distributors, artists, rights holders, etc.) soon establish and adopt an “organic inter-professional organization for the prevention and fight against the manipulation of online eavesdropping”.
The agency also intends to carry out a new study, between now and 2024, to monitor the evolution of these fraudulent practices.
Source: BFM TV
