A brand new lawsuit has been filed alleging that the variety of streams Drake has on Spotify has been artificially inflated.
The category motion lawsuit in opposition to Spotify was filed over the weekend (Sunday November 2) at California’s District Court docket. In it, the streaming big is accused of getting “mass-scale fraudulent streaming” that it “turned a blind eye” to.
Particulars concerning the case have been shared by Rolling Stone, and it’s broadly reported that the lawsuit was Snoop Dogg’s cousin RBX because the lead plaintiff.
Within the submitting, it’s alleged that of Drake’s 37 billion streams, “a considerable, non-trivial proportion [are] inauthentic and seem like the work of a sprawling community of Bot Accounts.”
“Each month, beneath Spotify’s watchful eye, billions of fraudulent streams are generated from pretend, illegitimate, and/or unlawful strategies. [This is fraud that] causes large monetary hurt to reliable artists, songwriters, producers, and different rights holders.”
“For Spotify, extra customers and music streams means extra promoting {dollars}, as long as the true origin of the streams stays hidden…” it provides, though it’s price highlighting that extra streams would additionally imply extra payouts required from the streaming platform.
It’s price noting that whereas Drake is the one artist named in regard to the alleged pretend streams, he’s not being sued.
Fairly, the one defendant within the case is Spotify, and if the corporate have been actively counting streams it is aware of to be pretend, could be issuing bigger payouts to some artists on the expense of others (as per Stereogum).
The category motion swimsuit relies on an examination of Drake’s streams between January 2022 and September 2025. The case alleges that the findings confirmed “irregular VPN utilization” – together with 250,000 streams of Drake’s ‘No Face’ in 2024 that originated in Turkey however “have been falsely geomapped by the coordinated use of VPNs to the UK in try to obscure their origins.”
Talking out in response to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for Spotify identified the corporate’s info web page and it’s feedback about synthetic streaming.
In addition they informed Rolling Stone: “We can not touch upon pending litigation. Nevertheless, Spotify on no account advantages from the industry-wide problem of synthetic streaming.”
“We closely put money into always-improving, best-in-class methods to fight it and safeguard artist payouts with robust protections like eradicating pretend streams, withholding royalties, and charging penalties,” the spokesperson added. “Our methods are working: In a case from final yr, one dangerous actor was indicted for stealing $10million from streaming providers, solely $60,000 of which got here from Spotify, proving how efficient we’re at limiting the impression of synthetic streaming on our platform.”
new class-action lawsuit claims billions of drake’s streams on spotify might be “fraudulent” 👀📊
filed in california district courtroom, the swimsuit alleges spotify “turned a blind eye” to “mass-scale fraudulent streaming,” with rapper rbx (dr. dre collaborator and snoop dogg’s… pic.twitter.com/aTg3oJmtga
— Genius (@Genius) November 3, 2025
The Los Angeles Occasions stories {that a} consultant for Drake didn’t instantly return a request for remark, and the Canadian rapper has nonetheless not spoken out publicly concerning the lawsuit in opposition to Spotify nor the claims about his streams.
In different Drake information, the rapper made historical past this summer time by headlining all three nights of this yr’s Wi-fi Competition in London, taking part in totally different units every evening. NME’s Kyann-Sian Williams gave the collection of exhibits a three-star evaluate and described it as “expertly curated, however [lacking] conviction”.
“For all the dimensions and all of the stats – most Billboard Quantity Ones, most streamed rapper ever, the fastest-selling Wi-fi version in historical past – this could’ve been Drake’s victory lap, reminding us why he earned all his success,” the evaluate learn. “As a substitute, it appears like a person floating above his personal fantasy, nonetheless chasing the love he’s already acquired. The Boy grew to become a person, certain – however Drake’s record-breaking Wi-fi residency appears like he’s but to develop up.”
