Justin Bieber has posted and deleted a fan-created guide for how to game streaming services to inflate the popstar’s streaming numbers artificially.
Fans of popular musicians often do this, but rarely do you see someone as high-profile as Bieber asking fans to push him to the top without actually listening to his songs.
Once again, the post was fan-made but re-posted by Bieber, or someone on his team, to the pop star’s Instagram story. It encouraged users to download a VPN, then set it so they were browsing through a U.S. domain (to help with Billboard numbers) and make a playlist of his new song and play it quietly on repeat all night.
Another section of the post asked users to buy the song on iTunes and multiple times on Bieber’s website.
The final section is for YouTube and details how Billboard gathers listening statistics from the video streaming platform.
The statistics gathering firm Neilson, which gathers music data for Billboard, told The Verge that it has programs to prevent this kind of thing, but it didn’t mention specifics so it’s unclear how well these inflation methods work.
Beyond just gaming the charts, these practices also de-rail algorithm-based streaming services like Spotify since it can fake a song’s popularity.
Source: The Verge
