May 12, 2025 • 28 mins
The digital music industry is rife with fraud and manipulation, from AI-generated song scams to playlist payola, all at the expense of real artists who struggle to earn sustainable income from streaming.
• North Carolina man Michael Smith stole $10 million using AI to create fake songs and bots to stream them
• Spotify paid $10 billion in royalties last year, but only 4% of artists earn sustainable income
• Playlist placement is often pay-to-play, with curators charging up to $5,000 monthly
• Major labels own playlist networks that prioritize their own artists
• "Playlist-safe" music is designed for algorithms, not artistic expression
• Global streaming manipulation includes Indian "streaming cafes" and organized fan campaigns
• Matt Farley earned a living creating thousands of novelty songs about bodily functions
• Voice assistants like Alexa inadvertently drive streams for bizarre children's content
Follow Grandpa Is Him for more insights into the strange forces shaping our digital world. Email your music discovery stories to grandpaishimcom@gmail.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
$10 million that's how much someone stole from the
music industry.
Not with guns or getaway cars,but with AI and a few lines of
code.
Welcome to Grandpa is Him.
I am your host, len Dimmick.
Today we unravel the digitalheist and the wild stories
shaping our world Today.
(00:31):
Stream scam.
I spent 83 hours listening tothe chicks.
Therapy would have been cheaper.
Have you ever thought aboutmaking money just by pressing
play?
Well, I sure have.
Well, someone did, and theytook it to the extreme.
Imagine waking up one morningchecking your bank account and
(00:55):
seeing an extra $10 million, notfrom a chart-topping hit or a
world tour, but from a schemeinvolving AI-generated music and
streaming platforms.
This isn't a glitch.
This is not a joke.
This was an actual operationthat lasted four months before
it came crashing down.
(01:15):
And the mastermind?
A man named Michael Smith.
Ladies and gentlemen, let'smeet the mastermind.
Let me introduce you to MichaelSmith.
No, not the Grammy-winningsinger, but a guy from North
Carolina who figured out how togame the music streaming system
in a way that would make eventhe most creative con artists
(01:36):
jealous.
Smith is now in some serioushot legal water because,
according to the FBI people youdon't want to mess with he used
artificial intelligence tocreate hundreds of thousands of
fake songs, uploaded them toSpotify and then used an army of
bots or coordinated streamingtactics to wrap up plays and
(01:58):
rake in over $10 million inroyalties.
Yep, while real musicians werestruggling to get their tracks
noticed, smith's instant musicempire was cashing in big time
by now.
You must be wondering how didthis even work?
Here's the breakdown Smith usedAI to make a large amount of
(02:23):
songs, each with unique titlesand information, making them
look real.
He then used automated programsor bots, to play these songs
repeatedly.
Since Spotify counts a playafter 30 seconds, these bots
would play each track just longenough to register as a real
stream.
With many streams, royaltypayments came in, taking funds
(02:46):
from real artists andsongwriters.
And right, there was the keypoint Spotify only requires a
song to be played for at least30 seconds for it to count as a
stream.
That means Smith and his botscould upload thousands of
one-minute tracks and repeatedlyplay just 31 seconds of each
one, maximizing payouts withoutraising suspicion.
(03:09):
This loophole made his schemevery efficient.
Now, just to save you a littlebit of time, I did the math If
you're playing a 31 second songfor 24 hours, you can get more
than 2,800 plays.
(03:30):
Imagine if you're doing thatwith several dozen bots.
So how did the feds catch on?
Well, eventually, streamingplatforms started noticing
something strange Billions ofstreams from accounts that
didn't seem real and tied to oneguy.
Yeah, that's going to raisesome questions.
(03:52):
And it turns out that Smith wasso deep into his scheme that he
was emailing his partners youknow, don't put it in writing if
you don't want to get introuble.
He was saying things like weneed a ton of songs fast to make
this work around the anti-fraudpolicies.
I mean, come on, that'sbasically an email confession
(04:13):
with Dear FBI in the subjectline.
And here's the biggest surpriseof all not Smith has been
arrested and is now facingcharges of wire fraud, money
laundering and conspiracy.
If convicted, he can be locatedat up to 60 years behind bars.
(04:36):
Bye-bye, michael.
This is Grandpa.
Is Him?
And now we're going to take alook at the bigger picture AI
and the music industry.
That was supposed to sound likethere was a colon between AI
and the music industry, but ohwell, we'll keep going.
But here's where it gets evenmore interesting.
(04:59):
This isn't just a one-off case.
The music industry has beendealing with AI-generated
content and streaming fraud.
For a while now, in fact,there's been a surge in fake
albums and artists popping up onplatforms like Spotify, all
aiming to take royalties fromgenuine musicians.
It's like the Wild West outthere, really, with AI as the
(05:23):
new outlaw, or certainly atleast an accomplice.
And speaking of Spotify, didyou know that in 2024,?
Last year, spotify paid out arecord $10 billion in royalties
to artists.
That's a large amount, buthere's the important detail Only
(05:43):
about 4% of artists on theplatform could expect to earn a
sustainable income from theirwork.
According to Spotify, Ilistened to one song 73 times.
That's not a music habit.
That's a cry for help.
Spotify's payout model is not assimple as per stream.
Instead, they use somethingcalled the stream share model,
(06:05):
which means that revenue fromsubscriptions and ads goes into
a pool.
The artists are then paid basedon their percentage of total
streams, not individual playcounts.
Rights holders meaning labels,distributors and publishers take
their cut before the artistssee a dime.
Yeah, there's a real shock foryou.
(06:26):
And Spotify keeps roughlytwo-thirds of every dollar made
for music.
That is lucrative and it'sactually pretty obscene.
But here's the reality check.
Spotify reports that 100,000artists made at least $6,000
(06:47):
last year Sounds decent.
Right, I'd like to make $6,000.
But when you factor in thatthere are over 12 million
uploaders, that's less than 1%of the artists making even a
minimum wage from streamingalone.
For most musicians, streamingincome is barely a side hustle,
let alone a career.
(07:08):
Spotify wrapped is basically ifyour therapist made a
PowerPoint presentation andemailed it to your ex.
Smith wasn't the only oneplaying the system.
Recently, drake's team hasaccused Universal Music Group
and Spotify of artificiallyinflating streams for Kendrick
Lamar's diss track Not Like Us.
(07:30):
It is alleged that bots andsecret payments were used to
push the track's numbers,rigging the system in favor of
certain artists.
Umg has obviously denied theallegations, but the situation
raises major concerns.
If industry giants are accusedof playing dirty, what does that
(07:50):
say about the fairness of thestreaming economy?
And let's not forget generalstreaming fraud, where bots
artificially boost streamingnumbers to make songs appear
more popular than they reallyare.
This practice can push certaintracks onto curated playlists
and front page recommendations,taking revenue from genuine
artists.
(08:10):
Platforms like Spotify andApple Music are constantly
fighting these schemes, but, aswe've seen, the fraudsters are
always one step ahead.
Some experts suggest afan-powered meaning listeners
user-centric model wherelistener subscriptions go
directly to the artists theyactually play rather than being
(08:32):
pooled and divided among topstreamers.
That could give independent andniche artists a fair shot at
earning sustainable income.
Now, if they can do anything tokeep from having to listen to
Baby Shark or Poop Poop PoopButt Song whenever my grandkids
come over, I'm all for it.
(08:53):
So what's the takeaway from allof this?
First, don't commit fraud.
Come on, people.
That's a blaring glimpse of theobvious.
Second, this is just thebeginning of AI in the music
world.
If one guy with a laptop cancreate a hit factory of nonsense
songs, what's stopping biggercompanies from doing the same
(09:13):
thing on a larger, more legitscale?
Are we entering an era where AIisn't just making music but
also scamming its way up thecharts?
And how do real artists competewhen a guy with bots can make
more money in a year than theymight in a lifetime?
We need to remember that behindthose stream numbers are real
people, artists, who put theirwhole lives into creating music.
(09:36):
These scams steal money and canalso steal dreams.
Let's move on to something alittle bit lighter about Spotify
.
Spotify's in-house data teamcombed through anonymized user
data to find some of the mostquestionable playlists and
listing trends of the year.
They then splashed these gemsonto billboards across the US,
(09:59):
UK and other countries for allto see.
Some hilarious examplesincluded the Jeb Bush playlist.
The ad said Dear person whomade a playlist called One Night
Stand with Jeb Bush, like he'sa Bond girl in a European casino
.
We have so many questions.
Next, one Guys Night.
(10:20):
In To the 1,235 guys who lovedthe Girls Night playlist this
year.
We love you.
Spotify was simply showingappreciation to the dudes
rocking out to a playlist madefor Girls Night.
But wait, it gets more specificand somehow more embarrassing.
Then there's one of myfavorites the Brexit Blues.
(10:42):
The ad said dear, said, dear.
3749 people who streamed.
It's the end of the world as weknow it the day after the
brexit vote.
Hang in there.
I guess this was a musicalcoping mechanism for political
turmoil.
And then we have a heartbeatrepeat Dear person who played
(11:02):
sorry 42 times on Valentine'sDay.
What did you do?
I gotta find out.
You can only imagine whatprompted that marathon of
apology songs.
Spotify decided to reflectculture via listener behavior
and, importantly, spotify keptthe messages anonymous but
(11:24):
personal.
Each billboard felt like alighthearted public inside joke,
with Spotify nudging the personin question and winking at the
rest of us who can't help but becurious.
The tagline thanks 2016,.
It's been weird.
That summed up the yearperfectly.
And wouldn't it be kind of funto drive down the street and say
, hey, they're talking about meand none of your friends are
(11:47):
going to believe you, especiallyif you're the one that started
liking the Girls' Night playlist.
All right, folks, we're wrappingup this segment on Spotify and
the music fraud with MichaelSmith, but don't go anywhere.
In just a moment, we're goingto start talking about the
playlist mafia.
That transition music is alittle bit out of character for
(12:15):
me, but it goes along well withthe segment.
When we're going to be talkingabout playlists, let's talk
about one of the biggestbehind-the-scenes power plays in
modern music playlists.
Yep, those curated bundles ofvibes that guide everything from
your workouts to yourcrying-in-the-car moments.
They look innocent, they soundinnocent, but playlists have
(12:45):
quietly become one of the mostinfluential forces in the music
industry.
Some even say they've replacedthe radio DJ and, as it turns
out, there's a whole businessbefore getting your song on them
.
You ever wonder how a brand newsong from an artist you've never
heard of ends up smack in themiddle of your chill hits
(13:05):
playlist or how your DiscoverWeekly seems to know what you
want.
Before you do Well, let's peelback the curtain.
Let's start with thepay-to-play side of things.
Ever heard of Spotlister?
Well, back in 2018, it letartists pay and I use the word
let lightly.
It let artists pay up to $5,000per month to get tracks placed
(13:31):
on certain curated playlists.
You weren't just submittingyour music, you were buying ad
space disguised as discovery.
It got big.
Then it got busted becausetechnically, spotify doesn't
allow paid placements.
But that hasn't stopped thehustle.
Reddit threads from independentmusicians show messages from
(13:54):
curators asking for $50, $300,even bulk discounts to get songs
in rotation.
And yeah, some even sentinvoices.
That's pretty brazen man.
Back in my day, if you wantedto get on the radio, you had to
bribe the DJ with a donut.
Now it's PayPal and a promocode.
(14:16):
Even the labels got in the game.
Sony owns Filter, warner's gotTopsify and Universal's running
Digster, and they stack thoselists with their own artists.
It's the modern version ofgetting the best booth in the
restaurant because you own therestaurant.
And don't even get me startedon Spotify's discovery mode.
(14:37):
It boosts your track'salgorithm visibility in exchange
for lower royalties.
In other words, if you acceptless, you rise in the rankings.
It's like getting a billboardon the freeway, but only if you
agree to be paid in monopolymoney.
Now, not every paid playlist isa scam.
Some curators do carefully vettheir lists and, for indie
(15:02):
artists, paying for exposuremight be the only way to break
through.
But here's the kicker, and as aconsumer, you need to be aware
of this.
None of this is labeled clearly.
You don't know which trackswere paid for.
There's no sponsored contenttag, which means you, dear
listener, might be vibing tosomeone's marketing budget, not
(15:23):
their music.
And hey, if you want to drop mea note, I want to know have you
ever found a song you loved ona playlist or skipped five times
in a row because they allsounded like AI lullabies?
Tell me about it.
I'd like to know what you'reexperiencing out there.
Okay, now we need to talk aboutplaylist-safe music.
(15:44):
Producers now write songstailored to the algorithm Short
intros, no abrupt changes, onemood, songs designed to blend in
and not stand out.
Think about that the next timeyou're listening to your
playlist and see if you canidentify some of these.
It's why so many tracks inlo-fi, chill-pop or ambient
genres sound well the same.
(16:06):
They're optimized to fill time.
Not to blow your mind, I oncelistened to a whole playlist on
a road trip and didn't realizethe song changed for 45 minutes.
That's the tie-in to thetransition music I played
earlier, because that song hasthe kind of sound that just
never changes.
Imagine a playlist designed andbuilt for that purpose.
(16:29):
And then there's the legend ofthe fake artist Names like Deep
Watch, nore, evolve Music, usedon big mood playlists but with
no traceable online identity.
Some say Spotify commissionstracks to save on royalties.
Spotify says otherwise.
They wouldn't really do that,would they?
But real or fake?
(16:51):
The strategy's clear Fillplaylists with cheap-to-license
or platform-owned tracks andkeep those payouts low.
If Deep Watch is real, I wantto see him at the Grammys
wearing a hoodie and a Spotifylanyard.
That's not going to happen, Iknow, but here's the deal.
(17:12):
Playlists can launch careers,but they're also battlegrounds
of marketing manipulation andsometimes straight-up
shenanigans.
Support the artists you love,buy a shirt, go to a concert,
stream their music intentionallyand, hey, maybe skip that
playlist called Tuesday FlowVibe, volume 71.
Just saying what's the bestartist you found by accident,
(17:36):
not through an algorithm, but afriend, a show or your
neighbor's mixtape.
I want to hear about it.
I want to hear about it.
So far we've covered scams,schemes and playlists padded
with tracks that sound like well, digital oatmeal.
(17:57):
But what if I told you?
The weirdest streaming storiesaren't coming from California or
New York, they're global.
Let's take a journey, notthrough the playlist, but across
borders, oceans and time zones,because when it comes to
(18:18):
streaming shenanigans, the wholeworld has a story to tell.
We'll begin in India, wheremusic is life and streaming
cafes are a thing.
These aren't cafes likeStarbucks.
They're small setups wherepeople, often hired, log into
various streaming accounts andplay songs or loop all day long.
(18:39):
The idea Juice the stream count.
More plays equal morevisibility.
More visibility equals morereal fans.
It's music farming, exceptinstead of crops, you're
harvesting playlists.
Shades of World of Warcraft inChina.
I love the idea of a guy namedRaj sipping chai tea and racking
(19:08):
up 10,000 plays of lo-fi frogbeats.
Next stop on our trip Russia,home to bears borscht and
allegedly money launderingthrough Spotify.
No joke, here's how it works.
Someone uploads basicinstrumental tracks, sets up
fake accounts, uses stolencredit cards to stream them 24-7
(19:32):
.
Boom, those fake royalties getpaid out.
That's how you clean dirtymoney with dirty beats.
Authorities have investigatedsimilar tactics used for click
fraud and digital ad revenue.
So, yeah, it's Ocean's Eleven,but make it ambient jazz.
(19:54):
Let's cross the ocean once more,this time to Brazil, and I mean
this with love.
Brazilian fans do not messaround.
They are the most organized,spreadsheet-armed streaming
ninjas in the world.
When a new track drops from abeloved artist, say BTS or
Anitta, these fans plan massstream campaigns, thousands of
(20:16):
them with schedules, with rules,no skipping.
Use a VPN if you're abroad.
They even switch devices soplays count more.
These folks are morecoordinated than my last three
family reunions combined.
In some cases, fans have pooledmoney to pay for boosted ads or
(20:37):
helped artists trend globallyby storming streaming charts.
It's crowd-powered promotionand it works.
Let's pivot to k-pop, whereglobalization and strategy go
hand in hand.
K-pop labels don't just launcha song, they launch a streaming
war.
They teach fans how to streamproperly to avoid
(21:00):
disqualification, they givetiming strategies to spike songs
in the charts and they useinternational rollout like
military ops.
It's no accident that K-popdominates global Spotify charts.
It's designed, marketed andmeasured, and it has inspired
(21:23):
artists across genres to adoptsimilar tactics.
Streaming also looksdifferently around the globe.
In China, apps like TencentMusic dominate.
In the Middle East, angamiAfrica, boomplay and Mdando.
Each has different rules,royalty models and regional
gatekeepers.
(21:43):
Some don't even rely on ads,just tips, sms billing or
sponsor-funded streams, whichmeans your streaming strategy in
LA doesn't always translate inLagos or Lahore.
Now, is all of this a problem?
Well, not necessarily.
Not always.
Some of it is fans showingsupport, some of it is smart
(22:05):
marketing, but when it becomesstream farms, laundering or
manipulation, yeah, we've got aproblem.
The bigger question do thesetactics help artists get
discovered or bury them in thealgorithm mess?
Something for you to consider.
When was the last time youdiscovered a new artist?
Was it from a playlist, tiktokor your cousin's wedding DJ?
(22:27):
Streaming isn't just a digitaljukebox anymore.
It's a global game of chess andsome countries are playing it.
Five moves ahead.
Next time you hit play,remember.
Someone somewhere might be in acafe on a VPN helping that
track hit the top.
(22:56):
For this final segment, I wantto talk about the strange
algorithms behind viral kidsmusic, and I'm going to start
off, and I know I'm going toregret this, but Alexa, play
something educational andenriching Now playing the poop
song by the Toilet Bowl Cleaners.
Yep, that actually happened.
Welcome to the weird, wonderfulworld of children's music in
(23:17):
2025, where smart speakers areDJs and poop jokes are platinum
hits.
In this segment of Grandpa IsHim.
We're diving into the strangealgorithms behind viral kids'
music, from poop songs to AIremixes, to a man who made a
living writing thousands ofsongs about bodily functions.
(23:39):
Let's start with a name you'veprobably never heard of.
I know I haven't, but your kidsdefinitely have Matt Farley.
Matt's a Massachusetts-basedmusic machine.
He's written and recorded over26,000 songs under names like
(24:00):
the Toilet Bowl Cleaners and theOdd man who Sings About Poop
Puke and Pee bowl cleaners andthe odd man who sings about poop
puke and pee.
This all started in collegewhen Matt realized a joke song
he made earned more royaltiesthan his real music, so he
leaned into it.
He writes songs based on searchterms, anything people might
randomly type or say to AlexaPoop song I farted at school.
(24:23):
Happy Birthday, kelly.
There's a song for everything.
Matt doesn't use AI, he usesstrategy.
He floods Spotify, Amazon andApple Music with weird, funny
and super specific content andhe makes a living doing it Now
playing Diarrhea Song forToddlers by the Poop Rangers.
He's been featured on NPR,shouted out by Billie Eilish and
(24:46):
discussed in parenting forumsworldwide, but he still records
in his home studio, cranking outdozens of tracks a day.
If I had a nickel every time mygrandkid asked for a poop song,
well, I'd probably still bebroke.
But Matt Farley, he's buyinglunch.
Now how does this stuff get sopopular?
(25:07):
It's not just the songs, it'sthe tech Voice assistants like
Alexa and Google Home.
I'm really afraid to say thosewords, because you never know
who's going to start speaking inthe background.
These devices have becomeaccidental enablers of toddler
comedy.
Kids love testing boundaries.
They say poop.
The device responds with a song.
(25:29):
It's digital call and responseand every stream pays the artist
.
There are entire Reddit threadsof parents sharing how their
kids have discovered endlessmusical chaos just by shouting
at the kitchen echo.
I know in one instance mythree-year-old grandson tried to
get a poop song to play and thenext thing I know, I had an
(25:51):
order for headphones in theshopping cart of my Amazon
account.
A true story.
And because kids loverepetition, once they hear it,
they play it again and again andagain.
You try explaining to afour-year-old why they can't
listen to the diarrhea anthem 10more times.
(26:11):
But this goes deeper.
Poop songs aren't the only weirdhits out there.
There's a growing list ofcreators some human, some
AI-assisted going viral, offniche, goofy and bizarrely
catchy tunes.
Remember Sharkbait?
It wasn't an accident.
The song was engineered formaximum stickiness, same with
(26:32):
it's Corn and the endless paradeof auto-tuned animal videos on
YouTube.
Kids Streaming platforms rewardwhatever keeps people listening.
Doesn't matter if it's Mozartor a monkey singing an auto-tune
.
If it gets clicks, it getspushed.
Even AI is stepping into thegame.
(26:53):
Some creators now use toolslike Boomi to pump out hundreds
of goofy tracks each week withminimal effort.
If robots take over the world,they're starting with the
preschool playlist.
So what have we learned today?
(27:14):
Poop is powerful, kids arealgorithm whisperers and Matt
Farley might just be the hardestworking man in streaming.
This whole thing might seemsilly, but it's also a
masterclass on how tech shapesour culture, even the stuff we
wish it didn't.
So next time your kids tellAlexa to play a poop song, just
(27:34):
smile.
Somewhere out there, mattFarley is nodding, laughing and
writing another one.
What's the weirdest song yourkid or your smart speaker has
ever played?
The weirdest song your kid oryour smart speaker has ever
played.
Hit me up, let me know.
And yes, poop songs totallycount.
(27:55):
And that's it for this episodeof Grandpa's Hymn.
We peeled back the curtain onplaylists, pay-to-play, trickery
algorithmic sameness and themysterious deep watch who may or
may not be streaming frominside a Spotify server.
Remember, behind every lo-fibeat and chill track is either
an artist trying to breakthrough or a data scientist with
a playlist to fill.
If you enjoyed this podcast andI think you did, tap that
(28:18):
follow button, tell a friend or,better yet, send me your
favorite real discovery atgrandpaishimcom at gmailcom.
Please, no bots allowed.
I'm Lynn and I'll be back nextweek, probably with fewer robots
and more real stories.
Until then, keep your earbudsclean, your playlists honest and
(28:39):
your shuffle button sacred.
See you next time.
$10 million that's how much someone stole from the
music industry.
Not with guns or getaway cars,but with AI and a few lines of
code.
Welcome to Grandpa is Him.
I am your host, len Dimmick.
Today we unravel the digitalheist and the wild stories
shaping our world Today.
(00:31):
Stream scam.
I spent 83 hours listening tothe chicks.
Therapy would have been cheaper.
Have you ever thought aboutmaking money just by pressing
play?
Well, I sure have.
Well, someone did, and theytook it to the extreme.
Imagine waking up one morningchecking your bank account and
(00:55):
seeing an extra $10 million, notfrom a chart-topping hit or a
world tour, but from a schemeinvolving AI-generated music and
streaming platforms.
This isn't a glitch.
This is not a joke.
This was an actual operationthat lasted four months before
it came crashing down.
(01:15):
And the mastermind?
A man named Michael Smith.
Ladies and gentlemen, let'smeet the mastermind.
Let me introduce you to MichaelSmith.
No, not the Grammy-winningsinger, but a guy from North
Carolina who figured out how togame the music streaming system
in a way that would make eventhe most creative con artists
(01:36):
jealous.
Smith is now in some serioushot legal water because,
according to the FBI people youdon't want to mess with he used
artificial intelligence tocreate hundreds of thousands of
fake songs, uploaded them toSpotify and then used an army of
bots or coordinated streamingtactics to wrap up plays and
(01:58):
rake in over $10 million inroyalties.
Yep, while real musicians werestruggling to get their tracks
noticed, smith's instant musicempire was cashing in big time
by now.
You must be wondering how didthis even work?
Here's the breakdown Smith usedAI to make a large amount of
(02:23):
songs, each with unique titlesand information, making them
look real.
He then used automated programsor bots, to play these songs
repeatedly.
Since Spotify counts a playafter 30 seconds, these bots
would play each track just longenough to register as a real
stream.
With many streams, royaltypayments came in, taking funds
(02:46):
from real artists andsongwriters.
And right, there was the keypoint Spotify only requires a
song to be played for at least30 seconds for it to count as a
stream.
That means Smith and his botscould upload thousands of
one-minute tracks and repeatedlyplay just 31 seconds of each
one, maximizing payouts withoutraising suspicion.
(03:09):
This loophole made his schemevery efficient.
Now, just to save you a littlebit of time, I did the math If
you're playing a 31 second songfor 24 hours, you can get more
than 2,800 plays.
(03:30):
Imagine if you're doing thatwith several dozen bots.
So how did the feds catch on?
Well, eventually, streamingplatforms started noticing
something strange Billions ofstreams from accounts that
didn't seem real and tied to oneguy.
Yeah, that's going to raisesome questions.
(03:52):
And it turns out that Smith wasso deep into his scheme that he
was emailing his partners youknow, don't put it in writing if
you don't want to get introuble.
He was saying things like weneed a ton of songs fast to make
this work around the anti-fraudpolicies.
I mean, come on, that'sbasically an email confession
(04:13):
with Dear FBI in the subjectline.
And here's the biggest surpriseof all not Smith has been
arrested and is now facingcharges of wire fraud, money
laundering and conspiracy.
If convicted, he can be locatedat up to 60 years behind bars.
(04:36):
Bye-bye, michael.
This is Grandpa.
Is Him?
And now we're going to take alook at the bigger picture AI
and the music industry.
That was supposed to sound likethere was a colon between AI
and the music industry, but ohwell, we'll keep going.
But here's where it gets evenmore interesting.
(04:59):
This isn't just a one-off case.
The music industry has beendealing with AI-generated
content and streaming fraud.
For a while now, in fact,there's been a surge in fake
albums and artists popping up onplatforms like Spotify, all
aiming to take royalties fromgenuine musicians.
It's like the Wild West outthere, really, with AI as the
(05:23):
new outlaw, or certainly atleast an accomplice.
And speaking of Spotify, didyou know that in 2024,?
Last year, spotify paid out arecord $10 billion in royalties
to artists.
That's a large amount, buthere's the important detail Only
(05:43):
about 4% of artists on theplatform could expect to earn a
sustainable income from theirwork.
According to Spotify, Ilistened to one song 73 times.
That's not a music habit.
That's a cry for help.
Spotify's payout model is not assimple as per stream.
Instead, they use somethingcalled the stream share model,
(06:05):
which means that revenue fromsubscriptions and ads goes into
a pool.
The artists are then paid basedon their percentage of total
streams, not individual playcounts.
Rights holders meaning labels,distributors and publishers take
their cut before the artistssee a dime.
Yeah, there's a real shock foryou.
(06:26):
And Spotify keeps roughlytwo-thirds of every dollar made
for music.
That is lucrative and it'sactually pretty obscene.
But here's the reality check.
Spotify reports that 100,000artists made at least $6,000
(06:47):
last year Sounds decent.
Right, I'd like to make $6,000.
But when you factor in thatthere are over 12 million
uploaders, that's less than 1%of the artists making even a
minimum wage from streamingalone.
For most musicians, streamingincome is barely a side hustle,
let alone a career.
(07:08):
Spotify wrapped is basically ifyour therapist made a
PowerPoint presentation andemailed it to your ex.
Smith wasn't the only oneplaying the system.
Recently, drake's team hasaccused Universal Music Group
and Spotify of artificiallyinflating streams for Kendrick
Lamar's diss track Not Like Us.
(07:30):
It is alleged that bots andsecret payments were used to
push the track's numbers,rigging the system in favor of
certain artists.
Umg has obviously denied theallegations, but the situation
raises major concerns.
If industry giants are accusedof playing dirty, what does that
(07:50):
say about the fairness of thestreaming economy?
And let's not forget generalstreaming fraud, where bots
artificially boost streamingnumbers to make songs appear
more popular than they reallyare.
This practice can push certaintracks onto curated playlists
and front page recommendations,taking revenue from genuine
artists.
(08:10):
Platforms like Spotify andApple Music are constantly
fighting these schemes, but, aswe've seen, the fraudsters are
always one step ahead.
Some experts suggest afan-powered meaning listeners
user-centric model wherelistener subscriptions go
directly to the artists theyactually play rather than being
(08:32):
pooled and divided among topstreamers.
That could give independent andniche artists a fair shot at
earning sustainable income.
Now, if they can do anything tokeep from having to listen to
Baby Shark or Poop Poop PoopButt Song whenever my grandkids
come over, I'm all for it.
(08:53):
So what's the takeaway from allof this?
First, don't commit fraud.
Come on, people.
That's a blaring glimpse of theobvious.
Second, this is just thebeginning of AI in the music
world.
If one guy with a laptop cancreate a hit factory of nonsense
songs, what's stopping biggercompanies from doing the same
(09:13):
thing on a larger, more legitscale?
Are we entering an era where AIisn't just making music but
also scamming its way up thecharts?
And how do real artists competewhen a guy with bots can make
more money in a year than theymight in a lifetime?
We need to remember that behindthose stream numbers are real
people, artists, who put theirwhole lives into creating music.
(09:36):
These scams steal money and canalso steal dreams.
Let's move on to something alittle bit lighter about Spotify
.
Spotify's in-house data teamcombed through anonymized user
data to find some of the mostquestionable playlists and
listing trends of the year.
They then splashed these gemsonto billboards across the US,
(09:59):
UK and other countries for allto see.
Some hilarious examplesincluded the Jeb Bush playlist.
The ad said Dear person whomade a playlist called One Night
Stand with Jeb Bush, like he'sa Bond girl in a European casino
.
We have so many questions.
Next, one Guys Night.
(10:20):
In To the 1,235 guys who lovedthe Girls Night playlist this
year.
We love you.
Spotify was simply showingappreciation to the dudes
rocking out to a playlist madefor Girls Night.
But wait, it gets more specificand somehow more embarrassing.
Then there's one of myfavorites the Brexit Blues.
(10:42):
The ad said dear, said, dear.
3749 people who streamed.
It's the end of the world as weknow it the day after the
brexit vote.
Hang in there.
I guess this was a musicalcoping mechanism for political
turmoil.
And then we have a heartbeatrepeat Dear person who played
(11:02):
sorry 42 times on Valentine'sDay.
What did you do?
I gotta find out.
You can only imagine whatprompted that marathon of
apology songs.
Spotify decided to reflectculture via listener behavior
and, importantly, spotify keptthe messages anonymous but
(11:24):
personal.
Each billboard felt like alighthearted public inside joke,
with Spotify nudging the personin question and winking at the
rest of us who can't help but becurious.
The tagline thanks 2016,.
It's been weird.
That summed up the yearperfectly.
And wouldn't it be kind of funto drive down the street and say
, hey, they're talking about meand none of your friends are
(11:47):
going to believe you, especiallyif you're the one that started
liking the Girls' Night playlist.
All right, folks, we're wrappingup this segment on Spotify and
the music fraud with MichaelSmith, but don't go anywhere.
In just a moment, we're goingto start talking about the
playlist mafia.
That transition music is alittle bit out of character for
(12:15):
me, but it goes along well withthe segment.
When we're going to be talkingabout playlists, let's talk
about one of the biggestbehind-the-scenes power plays in
modern music playlists.
Yep, those curated bundles ofvibes that guide everything from
your workouts to yourcrying-in-the-car moments.
They look innocent, they soundinnocent, but playlists have
(12:45):
quietly become one of the mostinfluential forces in the music
industry.
Some even say they've replacedthe radio DJ and, as it turns
out, there's a whole businessbefore getting your song on them
.
You ever wonder how a brand newsong from an artist you've never
heard of ends up smack in themiddle of your chill hits
(13:05):
playlist or how your DiscoverWeekly seems to know what you
want.
Before you do Well, let's peelback the curtain.
Let's start with thepay-to-play side of things.
Ever heard of Spotlister?
Well, back in 2018, it letartists pay and I use the word
let lightly.
It let artists pay up to $5,000per month to get tracks placed
(13:31):
on certain curated playlists.
You weren't just submittingyour music, you were buying ad
space disguised as discovery.
It got big.
Then it got busted becausetechnically, spotify doesn't
allow paid placements.
But that hasn't stopped thehustle.
Reddit threads from independentmusicians show messages from
(13:54):
curators asking for $50, $300,even bulk discounts to get songs
in rotation.
And yeah, some even sentinvoices.
That's pretty brazen man.
Back in my day, if you wantedto get on the radio, you had to
bribe the DJ with a donut.
Now it's PayPal and a promocode.
(14:16):
Even the labels got in the game.
Sony owns Filter, warner's gotTopsify and Universal's running
Digster, and they stack thoselists with their own artists.
It's the modern version ofgetting the best booth in the
restaurant because you own therestaurant.
And don't even get me startedon Spotify's discovery mode.
(14:37):
It boosts your track'salgorithm visibility in exchange
for lower royalties.
In other words, if you acceptless, you rise in the rankings.
It's like getting a billboardon the freeway, but only if you
agree to be paid in monopolymoney.
Now, not every paid playlist isa scam.
Some curators do carefully vettheir lists and, for indie
(15:02):
artists, paying for exposuremight be the only way to break
through.
But here's the kicker, and as aconsumer, you need to be aware
of this.
None of this is labeled clearly.
You don't know which trackswere paid for.
There's no sponsored contenttag, which means you, dear
listener, might be vibing tosomeone's marketing budget, not
(15:23):
their music.
And hey, if you want to drop mea note, I want to know have you
ever found a song you loved ona playlist or skipped five times
in a row because they allsounded like AI lullabies?
Tell me about it.
I'd like to know what you'reexperiencing out there.
Okay, now we need to talk aboutplaylist-safe music.
(15:44):
Producers now write songstailored to the algorithm Short
intros, no abrupt changes, onemood, songs designed to blend in
and not stand out.
Think about that the next timeyou're listening to your
playlist and see if you canidentify some of these.
It's why so many tracks inlo-fi, chill-pop or ambient
genres sound well the same.
(16:06):
They're optimized to fill time.
Not to blow your mind, I oncelistened to a whole playlist on
a road trip and didn't realizethe song changed for 45 minutes.
That's the tie-in to thetransition music I played
earlier, because that song hasthe kind of sound that just
never changes.
Imagine a playlist designed andbuilt for that purpose.
(16:29):
And then there's the legend ofthe fake artist Names like Deep
Watch, nore, evolve Music, usedon big mood playlists but with
no traceable online identity.
Some say Spotify commissionstracks to save on royalties.
Spotify says otherwise.
They wouldn't really do that,would they?
But real or fake?
(16:51):
The strategy's clear Fillplaylists with cheap-to-license
or platform-owned tracks andkeep those payouts low.
If Deep Watch is real, I wantto see him at the Grammys
wearing a hoodie and a Spotifylanyard.
That's not going to happen, Iknow, but here's the deal.
(17:12):
Playlists can launch careers,but they're also battlegrounds
of marketing manipulation andsometimes straight-up
shenanigans.
Support the artists you love,buy a shirt, go to a concert,
stream their music intentionallyand, hey, maybe skip that
playlist called Tuesday FlowVibe, volume 71.
Just saying what's the bestartist you found by accident,
(17:36):
not through an algorithm, but afriend, a show or your
neighbor's mixtape.
I want to hear about it.
I want to hear about it.
So far we've covered scams,schemes and playlists padded
with tracks that sound like well, digital oatmeal.
(17:57):
But what if I told you?
The weirdest streaming storiesaren't coming from California or
New York, they're global.
Let's take a journey, notthrough the playlist, but across
borders, oceans and time zones,because when it comes to
(18:18):
streaming shenanigans, the wholeworld has a story to tell.
We'll begin in India, wheremusic is life and streaming
cafes are a thing.
These aren't cafes likeStarbucks.
They're small setups wherepeople, often hired, log into
various streaming accounts andplay songs or loop all day long.
(18:39):
The idea Juice the stream count.
More plays equal morevisibility.
More visibility equals morereal fans.
It's music farming, exceptinstead of crops, you're
harvesting playlists.
Shades of World of Warcraft inChina.
I love the idea of a guy namedRaj sipping chai tea and racking
(19:08):
up 10,000 plays of lo-fi frogbeats.
Next stop on our trip Russia,home to bears borscht and
allegedly money launderingthrough Spotify.
No joke, here's how it works.
Someone uploads basicinstrumental tracks, sets up
fake accounts, uses stolencredit cards to stream them 24-7
(19:32):
.
Boom, those fake royalties getpaid out.
That's how you clean dirtymoney with dirty beats.
Authorities have investigatedsimilar tactics used for click
fraud and digital ad revenue.
So, yeah, it's Ocean's Eleven,but make it ambient jazz.
(19:54):
Let's cross the ocean once more,this time to Brazil, and I mean
this with love.
Brazilian fans do not messaround.
They are the most organized,spreadsheet-armed streaming
ninjas in the world.
When a new track drops from abeloved artist, say BTS or
Anitta, these fans plan massstream campaigns, thousands of
(20:16):
them with schedules, with rules,no skipping.
Use a VPN if you're abroad.
They even switch devices soplays count more.
These folks are morecoordinated than my last three
family reunions combined.
In some cases, fans have pooledmoney to pay for boosted ads or
(20:37):
helped artists trend globallyby storming streaming charts.
It's crowd-powered promotionand it works.
Let's pivot to k-pop, whereglobalization and strategy go
hand in hand.
K-pop labels don't just launcha song, they launch a streaming
war.
They teach fans how to streamproperly to avoid
(21:00):
disqualification, they givetiming strategies to spike songs
in the charts and they useinternational rollout like
military ops.
It's no accident that K-popdominates global Spotify charts.
It's designed, marketed andmeasured, and it has inspired
(21:23):
artists across genres to adoptsimilar tactics.
Streaming also looksdifferently around the globe.
In China, apps like TencentMusic dominate.
In the Middle East, angamiAfrica, boomplay and Mdando.
Each has different rules,royalty models and regional
gatekeepers.
(21:43):
Some don't even rely on ads,just tips, sms billing or
sponsor-funded streams, whichmeans your streaming strategy in
LA doesn't always translate inLagos or Lahore.
Now, is all of this a problem?
Well, not necessarily.
Not always.
Some of it is fans showingsupport, some of it is smart
(22:05):
marketing, but when it becomesstream farms, laundering or
manipulation, yeah, we've got aproblem.
The bigger question do thesetactics help artists get
discovered or bury them in thealgorithm mess?
Something for you to consider.
When was the last time youdiscovered a new artist?
Was it from a playlist, tiktokor your cousin's wedding DJ?
(22:27):
Streaming isn't just a digitaljukebox anymore.
It's a global game of chess andsome countries are playing it.
Five moves ahead.
Next time you hit play,remember.
Someone somewhere might be in acafe on a VPN helping that
track hit the top.
(22:56):
For this final segment, I wantto talk about the strange
algorithms behind viral kidsmusic, and I'm going to start
off, and I know I'm going toregret this, but Alexa, play
something educational andenriching Now playing the poop
song by the Toilet Bowl Cleaners.
Yep, that actually happened.
Welcome to the weird, wonderfulworld of children's music in
(23:17):
2025, where smart speakers areDJs and poop jokes are platinum
hits.
In this segment of Grandpa IsHim.
We're diving into the strangealgorithms behind viral kids'
music, from poop songs to AIremixes, to a man who made a
living writing thousands ofsongs about bodily functions.
(23:39):
Let's start with a name you'veprobably never heard of.
I know I haven't, but your kidsdefinitely have Matt Farley.
Matt's a Massachusetts-basedmusic machine.
He's written and recorded over26,000 songs under names like
(24:00):
the Toilet Bowl Cleaners and theOdd man who Sings About Poop
Puke and Pee bowl cleaners andthe odd man who sings about poop
puke and pee.
This all started in collegewhen Matt realized a joke song
he made earned more royaltiesthan his real music, so he
leaned into it.
He writes songs based on searchterms, anything people might
randomly type or say to AlexaPoop song I farted at school.
(24:23):
Happy Birthday, kelly.
There's a song for everything.
Matt doesn't use AI, he usesstrategy.
He floods Spotify, Amazon andApple Music with weird, funny
and super specific content andhe makes a living doing it Now
playing Diarrhea Song forToddlers by the Poop Rangers.
He's been featured on NPR,shouted out by Billie Eilish and
(24:46):
discussed in parenting forumsworldwide, but he still records
in his home studio, cranking outdozens of tracks a day.
If I had a nickel every time mygrandkid asked for a poop song,
well, I'd probably still bebroke.
But Matt Farley, he's buyinglunch.
Now how does this stuff get sopopular?
(25:07):
It's not just the songs, it'sthe tech Voice assistants like
Alexa and Google Home.
I'm really afraid to say thosewords, because you never know
who's going to start speaking inthe background.
These devices have becomeaccidental enablers of toddler
comedy.
Kids love testing boundaries.
They say poop.
The device responds with a song.
(25:29):
It's digital call and responseand every stream pays the artist
.
There are entire Reddit threadsof parents sharing how their
kids have discovered endlessmusical chaos just by shouting
at the kitchen echo.
I know in one instance mythree-year-old grandson tried to
get a poop song to play and thenext thing I know, I had an
(25:51):
order for headphones in theshopping cart of my Amazon
account.
A true story.
And because kids loverepetition, once they hear it,
they play it again and again andagain.
You try explaining to afour-year-old why they can't
listen to the diarrhea anthem 10more times.
(26:11):
But this goes deeper.
Poop songs aren't the only weirdhits out there.
There's a growing list ofcreators some human, some
AI-assisted going viral, offniche, goofy and bizarrely
catchy tunes.
Remember Sharkbait?
It wasn't an accident.
The song was engineered formaximum stickiness, same with
(26:32):
it's Corn and the endless paradeof auto-tuned animal videos on
YouTube.
Kids Streaming platforms rewardwhatever keeps people listening.
Doesn't matter if it's Mozartor a monkey singing an auto-tune
.
If it gets clicks, it getspushed.
Even AI is stepping into thegame.
(26:53):
Some creators now use toolslike Boomi to pump out hundreds
of goofy tracks each week withminimal effort.
If robots take over the world,they're starting with the
preschool playlist.
So what have we learned today?
(27:14):
Poop is powerful, kids arealgorithm whisperers and Matt
Farley might just be the hardestworking man in streaming.
This whole thing might seemsilly, but it's also a
masterclass on how tech shapesour culture, even the stuff we
wish it didn't.
So next time your kids tellAlexa to play a poop song, just
(27:34):
smile.
Somewhere out there, mattFarley is nodding, laughing and
writing another one.
What's the weirdest song yourkid or your smart speaker has
ever played?
The weirdest song your kid oryour smart speaker has ever
played.
Hit me up, let me know.
And yes, poop songs totallycount.
(27:55):
And that's it for this episodeof Grandpa's Hymn.
We peeled back the curtain onplaylists, pay-to-play, trickery
algorithmic sameness and themysterious deep watch who may or
may not be streaming frominside a Spotify server.
Remember, behind every lo-fibeat and chill track is either
an artist trying to breakthrough or a data scientist with
a playlist to fill.
If you enjoyed this podcast andI think you did, tap that
(28:18):
follow button, tell a friend or,better yet, send me your
favorite real discovery atgrandpaishimcom at gmailcom.
Please, no bots allowed.
I'm Lynn and I'll be back nextweek, probably with fewer robots
and more real stories.
Until then, keep your earbudsclean, your playlists honest and
(28:39):
your shuffle button sacred.
See you next time.
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