Rapper RBX recently accused streaming giant Spotify of ignoring fraud, which allegedly boosted superstar Drake‘s songs on the platform from 2022 to 2025. While the lawsuit does not allege that Drake did anything criminal, it states that Spotify defrauded rights holders out of “hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Here’s a breakdown of what this lawsuit is all about.
New lawsuit against Spotify accuses Drake of ‘fraudulent streams’
In a federal class action lawsuit filed Sunday, rapper RBX accused streaming giant Spotify of turning a blind eye to fake streams that benefited the company’s agenda. He alleged that the fake streams boosted Drake’s songs, ultimately generating more revenue for Spotify.
As per NBC News, the suit names RBX as a plaintiff both individually and “on behalf of other members of the general public similarly situated.” The suit alleges that over the past three years, Drake’s songs benefited from millions of fake streams generated by bots or fake accounts.
“The more users (including fake users) Spotify has, the more advertisements it can sell, the more profits the company can report, all of which serves to increase the purported value delivered to shareholders,” the suit stated. “This mass-scale fraudulent streaming causes massive financial harm to legitimate artists, songwriters, producers, and other rightsholders whose proportional share is decreased as a result of fraudulent stream inflation on Spotify’s platform.”
Spotify pays artists from a revenue pool, meaning that bigger artists often take away capital from independent ones. The primary claim of the lawsuit is that Spotify failed to prevent bots from fraudulently inflating streams for Drake.
However, the company has stated that it recently implemented measures to curb third-party interventions that guarantee more streams.
There have been several complaints about Spotify’s business model in the past as well.
Though Drake is not a defendant in the case, it adds to the many controversies he has faced over the years.
