Streaming Farm; Scam or Not?

THE PRESSURE IS GETTING 'WESSER'!

The pressure to make it all at cost in the creative industry especially in the entertainment industry is getting serious as a lot of creatives are cutting corners to ‘blow’ (be successful) at all cost in record time. As a talent manager in the creative industry, I have seen the best talents just fizzle out without ‘blowing’ and I wonder why. This can be due to a lot of reasons: bad or no proper talent management at all, lack of proper career planning, lack of planning for promotions and PR, lack of knowledge of the business side of the talent…the list is endless. Even after you’ve dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s, it’s still possible not to blow; that you can mostly attribute to time and chance. But before I delve into that, some of the strategies used in ‘blowing’ needs to be addressed, just like in the case of using streaming farm to boost streaming numbers in the music industry; is it a brilliant strategy or is it just an Illegal way of blowing? But first let’s define what streaming farm is?

Streaming farms are like the black market of the music business; they are services designed to illegally increase the number of times a song is listened to through software Bots or the use of a large number of phones.

They create listening bots that can stream songs up to 1,000 times per minute, which means that in just 10 minutes they may give a musician or band a count of more than 10,000 fake streams of their song. This greatly increases the number of times a song is streamed.

Sadly, many labels use it to boost their artist’s streams and keep them hot on the market, while unknown artists use it to get the attention of big labels. On a global scale, some big names in the music industry have been accused of using streaming farms to boost or inflate numbers.

Though streaming farm helps you get the streaming numbers but most importantly the real goal is that it promotes the artist and the music. People are more prone to stream a song that already has a sizable number of listenership just out of curiosity, just like how people will most likely like a post or watch a video with a sizable number of likes or viewers. The same reason why people will follow someone who has a sizable number of followers on social media – this is why people buy followers. Same strategy, different tools. But as for streaming farm, its not just about manipulating people with high numbers in order to get real listeners to stream the song, the artist also gets paid by the streaming platforms for the fake streaming numbers, isn’t that a scam? ?but let’s ask ourselves – do you really think the streaming platforms don’t know about this and they just simply look the other way because it also benefits them in a way? (that’s a topic for another day)

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A lot of music stakeholders and fans have since questioned the use of streaming farm by music artists. This was recently brought to light by the tweet of Afrobeat’s music artists BNXN (aka Buju) where he accused his counterpart; Ruger of using streaming farm to boost his career

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But really if you are a young talented artiste, and you just got signed to a major record label or you just got a big investment with a deadline and pressure to deliver within a stipulated period of time, won’t you use streaming farm to blow especially with the level of competition in the industry today? Is it not a way to promote your music at least for once? because if you truly you are as talented and unique as you claim to be, using it once should get people hooked to your talent and then you shouldn’t have to use it again. Also, I have to note that the use of streaming farm is mostly perpetrated by record label executives even without the fore knowledge of the music artist. But how does that level the playing field for other talents who don’t have the amount of money to use streaming farm? Like they say “Life is not fair”

Looking at it from another angle, if truly you are talented and unique, why are you in a hurry to blow? Cause one thing is certain about life is that everyone will get their chance to blow, its all about time and chance (and let me add – consistency) but how you maximize that chance is what matters, and also remember that time is of the essence. Do you really have the patience to wait for your time? Or will you rather buy that time by using streaming farm and other tools to push you out in the market by all means? There is also something I have seen under the sun; you can still do all and still not blow.

I believe the question of streaming farm and other questionable tools is really a question of time, chance and how best you use your super powers - Just like someone once asked what was batman’s super power and someone else answered “He is rich”- Your generic talent is never enough. What other super powers do you have to get your talent out there? Not all of us can be rich or will get signed to a big record label, but I believe we all have one thing or the other, it could be the value of your network or your street smartness or your understanding of business, it could be anything at all. Find time to discover it and use it to level the playing field in the best and legal way possible.?