IFPI Unveils Plan to Root Out Paid-for Fake Streams

A new tool is now available to the recorded music business in its long fight against the fraud that has been costing it money for years. The IFPI, which represents the industry internationally, has started the Streaming Integrity Initiative, or SII, and almost every major distributor in the business has come together behind it.

This effort establishes a set of base rules for catching and stopping the sort of streaming fraud that allows wrongdoers to trick DSPs into paying royalties for plays that do not come from real listeners. Those joining the initiative must agree to five central promises, which cover confirming customer identities all the way through sharing information about wrongdoers who move from one service to another.

The roster of supporters covers almost every major player in the distribution industry. It runs from Absolute Label Services through to Warner Music Group, taking in ADA, AWAL, CD Baby, CmdShft, Ditto Music, FUGA, GoDigital, HYBE, IDOL, IMPALA, InnerCat Music Group, Merlin, Redeye, Revelator, RouteNote, Secretly Distribution, Symphonic, Sony Music Group, Too Lost, Universal Music Group and Virgin Music Group along the way. Distrokid, the biggest DIY distributor, remains the only notable absentee.

Core Commitments

The pledges address every stage of fraud detection, from start to finish. The parties promise to:

• Verify rights ownership and customer identities through robust rights verification, a process known as Know Your Customer, or KYC, checks
• Vet content using effective tools and processes to find infringement, fraudulent activity and AI-related risks
• Detect, investigate and mitigate suspected fraud, including repeat offenders
• Share intelligence, where legally permitted, to keep offenders from moving from service to service
• Keep strengthening and measuring anti-fraud systems to meet evolving threats

Each commitment targets a weak spot in the current system. The KYC check addresses the identity problem — fraudsters need real accounts to make fake plays look legitimate. Content vetting catches songs that aren’t what they claim to be. Intelligence sharing stops offenders from simply moving to a new service once they’re caught.

Why Fraud Is Worth Fighting

Streaming fraud is costing artists and platforms hundreds of millions, or even billions, annually, according to experts. Because artificial intelligence now makes these schemes simpler to carry out than ever before, the subject has grown into a major issue.

SII is the newest effort to unite all parties involved, and the scale of the problem is substantial enough to demand action. Years of attempted coordination by the industry have led to this point, with SII now standing as the current bid to get everyone working together.

“Streaming fraud misleads fans and deprives legitimate artists and songwriters of income that should rightfully flow to them,” Victoria Oakley, CEO of IFPI, said in a statement. “This is theft, plain and simple.”

The initiative does not exist to defend platforms. It exists to defend artists and songwriters who suffer losses when plays are faked, according to Oakley’s statement.

The Road to SII

The SII falls under a larger push from IFPI known as End Streaming Fraud, a drive meant to bring attention to the matter. It also rests upon earlier efforts carried out by the industry.

Two years ago, a group of companies joined forces to create the Music Fights Fraud Alliance, or MFFA, in the United States, linking distributors and streaming services so they could exchange information and work together against fraud. A spokesperson for SII says the effort works closely with the MFFA but is not part of it directly.

The Music Business Association created Trust and Safety as a symposium to educate the music industry about the problem.

The MFFA operates separately from SII, according to the initiative’s representative.

Industry Response

Merlin’s director of content integrity, Sarah McNabb, gave her backing to the plan, adding “Tackling illegitimate activity effectively requires every part of the industry to move together,”.

McNabb’s statement ties the initiative to Merlin’s existing requirements. She noted that the commitments reflect Merlin’s own position and align closely with what Merlin already asks of its members. She also praised the number of Merlin members already putting their names to the announcement.

Earlier this year, Helen Smith’s IMPALA’s executive chair, framed the initiative as part of a broader push for industry collaboration. “IMPALA’ adopted the Digital Music Plan, which set out her organisation’s recommendations for growing the market and placed industry collaboration on a new scale among its top priorities, she said.

Smith’s remarks highlight the scale of the ambition. IMPALA’ has put forward a set of proposals aimed at DSPs, labels and distributors alike, and he argued that collaboration between all three parties on matters of integrity, support for human artistry and other central concerns throughout the entire supply chain is essential.

What Comes Next

There is significant forward movement behind the effort, though it has yet to reach completion. One notable name is still missing from the list of major players: Distrokid.

That Distrokid is missing from the list is something worth remarking upon, yet it does not spell the end for the effort. The people behind it cover almost every part of the industry.

The success of the effort hinges on enforcement. The IFPI has supplied the industry with a model to follow. What remains to be seen is whether the industry actually puts it into practice.

anti-fraud · IFPI · music industry · royalties · streaming fraud