Spotify denies using bots to inflate Kendrick Lamar streams after Drake allegations
In late November, Drake decided to file pre-action petitions directed at Universal Music Group (UMG), Spotify, and iHeartRadio for artificially inflating the streams and popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track, ‘Not Like Us’.
The accusations from Drake’s lawyers range from defamation to pay-for-play. Concerning Spotify, Drizzy has suggested in a pre-action petition that (alongside Universal) the streaming service accepted “covert payments” and engaged in a “campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services” as well as “drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues.”
Shortly after the second pre-action petition was filed, UMG responded to the allegations and, in a statement, wrote, “The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns.”
The company continued, “No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.” No more has been heard from the company.
That said, until now, Spotify hadn’t officially responded to the petitions. Now, the streaming service has denied all of the claims, including the claim that they used bots to boost the numbers of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us.’
The statement was accompanied by a motion filed in a Manhattan court, which insists that Drake’s November petition is completely false, reading, “The predicate of Petitioner’s entire request for discovery from Spotify is false.” It continues, “Spotify and UMG have never had any such arrangement.”
The streaming service called the Views creator’s claims “far-fetched” and “speculative,” further slamming him for filing a legal petition rather than a full lawsuit against Spotify and Universal UMG. Addressing the reason why Drake chose to file a pre-action petition instead of an actual lawsuit, Spotify’s lawyer wrote, “What petitioner is seeking to do here … is to bypass the normal pleading requirements … and obtain by way of pre-action discovery that which it would only be entitled to seek were it to survive a motion to dismiss. This subversion of the normal judicial process should be rejected.”
The streaming service is the first out of the three companies targeted by Drake to respond with legal action. Earlier this month, UMG released a statement stating, “No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
Drake’s attorneys responded with an online declaration, reading, “It is not surprising that Spotify is trying to distance themselves from UMG’s allegedly manipulative practices to artificially inflate streaming numbers on behalf of one of its other artists. If Spotify and UMG have nothing to hide, then they should be perfectly fine complying with this basic discovery request.”