Apple Music: How iPhone maker cut down on fraud by 30%

financialexpress.com:

Apple Music has experienced a significant reduction of 30% in fraud over the past year, following the implementation of robust measures against streaming manipulation.

In March, Apple Music informed its music industry partners via email that it had implemented enhanced fraud protections over a year ago, including imposing “financial adjustments” on repeat offenders.

According to a report by Billboard, Apple Music’s internal metrics reveal a significant 30% decrease in streaming manipulation since the introduction of these measures. The company’s proactive stance aims to maintain the integrity of its platform and ensure fair compensation for legitimate plays while penalising those engaging in fraudulent streaming practices.

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Apple is actively combating streaming fraud in the music industry, which includes tactics like using bots to generate fake streams for financial gain. One specific type of fraud involves artists creating albums of very short songs of 31 seconds or even less to exploit a policy that exempts tracks of such length from counting towards royalties.

To address this issue, Apple Music regularly sends daily reports to music industry partners, highlighting albums with streams under review. After review, manipulated streams are removed, and legitimate plays are released. Apple is determined to block fraudsters from benefiting and redirect royalties to valid plays. “At the end of each month, content providers also receive a report with all excluded streams,” reads the email seen by Billboard.

As a result of these measures, Apple claims to have reduced the rate of fraudulent plays to 0.3%, a significant improvement