How Fake Music Is Bleeding Real Artists Dry

For better or worse, streaming changed the music business forever. But it also created an entirely new kind of crime. Or actually, a whole bunch of new kinds of crimes. This week on Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake pull back the curtain on the shadowy underground industry of fake streams, click farms, bot networks, AI-generated music, and digital fraud. The guys also explore how streaming royalties are supposed to work in the first place, and why every fake play can take money directly out of legitimate artists' pockets. Ever wondered how someone can make millions from songs that nobody has actually heard, or how your playlist could become part of an international money-laundering scheme? This episode may have you looking at your favorite streaming app very, very differently.