How Money Laundering W/ Spotify Works 

The music industry has always rubbed shoulders with organized crime. Before Spotify, party promotion was the way to go.

As a swede I thank you for shining light on this madness

Dang, so it's not just subscribers paying criminals to launder money, it's advertisers and Spotify's own investors. Absolutely insane.

When a crime happens in Sweden, many swedes go to the discussion board Flashback to find out more. It's often some "aspiring rapper" who got shot. Most of the time everyone says "Literally Who?". And every time som lowlife answers "Hey gramps, you know nothing of modern culture, the victim has 2 million streams a month on Spotify". Now we know why. It doesn't end there. Every year the state controlled radio channel P3 has an award event where artists gets awards, mostly based on the Spotify numbers.

Thank you for shining a light on this issue! There is something else about this issue that is important for Swedes who care about music and culture: There are music charts that are based on Spotify plays, which makes this a self-feeding monster. 1. Buy Spotify plays 2. Artists with millions of bought plays will enter these charts 3. Since these artists are now on charts, they must be popular, right? Swedish radio starts playing them, because FOMO - if they are this big on Spotify, how have we missed them!?? 4. Same artists become legitimately popular, since they get a lot of radio plays, mentioned on TV, other channels, etc. 5. More Spotify plays! Lots of these artists have then gone on to win prestigious awards, even though we don't really know how many of them were popular in their own right.

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.” ― Hunter S. Thompson

This needs to be a whole series. How to launder money in the music industry in every country. This is the kind of investigative journalism we need.

FYI: 90% of this could be solved by Spotify managing their own catalog and payments instead of depending on for-profit, 3rd party aggregators like Distrokid (and hundreds of lesser knowns) to do it for them.

It goes to show how rarely I see paper and coin cash here in Sweden, that it took me some time to realize that the bank notes on screen are Norwegian, not Swedish. :)

So many times some sketchy local artist has told me their album got streamed a bajillion times in Sweden. Now I know why.

Instructions unclear; I won a Grammy.

so you CAN make money on spotify 😮who knew

Great video. This phenomenon isn't exclusive to Sweden btw, a lot of German and Swiss rappers use botted stream to make it to the top of the charts and knowing their ties to organized crime we can make an educated guess where the money to buy the botted streams is coming from...

Thank you for actually calling these tactics fraud in your opening statement. There have been a handful of business bro podcasters bringing people on their shows to BRAG about committing literal fraud on Spotify. Some guy was claiming he makes $70,000 a month with bot plays across hundreds of artist accounts to avoid detection. WE NEED TO LITERALLY SEND PEOPLE LIKE THIS TO PRISON. Holy hell

The real reason Sweden got more violent is because they heard I will be moving from America to Sweden in a few years and they wanted me to feel more at home. I am thankful for Sweden being so kind to my feelings.

The older I get, the more i realize how very very few legitimate ways people make real (good) money in this world outside of working for corporations... and those corporations are likely doing the shady stuff for you

Excellent reporting on this. This is small news compared to money laundering but I've noticed fake albums on Spotify as well. I'm not sure how prevalent this is but I've seen old reddit posts of jazz fans complaining about it when they're trying to search past artists like Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, Johnny Smith. I've encountered it looking up Gary Numan and Tubeway Army. The band Dramatis' album "For Future Reference" from 1981 has been recycled into 5 newer albums with nearly identical track listings, but shittier album art. There's 2 fake Dramatis albums: 2009's "The Dramatis Project" and 2012's "This is... Dramatis". There's the fake 2012 Tubeway Army albums "Ex Luna Scientia", 2016's "I Only Rewind", and the fake Gary Numan album from 2016 "Terrestial Channels".

Thank you Benn, it's a bit depressing to see how digital culture is really making harder for musicians and artist.

Speaking of pirating digital content, the Pirate Bay was founded by Swedes 😅 I love Swedes and have a few Swedish friends ❤

Benn I honestly love you for these videos. You bring some of the most interesting and unusual content on this platform. I wish I had found your channel sooner.

If only someone could tell what exactly happened to sweden in those last 10 years… hmmm … I just can’t put my finger on it what that might have been…

"Swedes" lol Just lol

What's your take on Spotify not paying out on a track unless it has 1000 annual plays? I'd be hit, but I'm not in it for the money and I think I'm pretty rare.

In Australia, up until recently, money laundering was done mostly in Casinos and local clubs where they had gambling machines (pokies).

before spotify, i knew a person that did structuring payment laundering for very rich people using itunes. it worked well back then because the purchase prices were much larger than stream payments... i seriously doubt it's possible now, this was back in like 2010-2012.

Thanks for shining a light on this. Musicians may not be the only ones hurt by this (since the royalty pool is diverted to scammers): presumably, these click farms use free Spotify accounts - if that's the case, then advertisers are paying to show ads to bots

There was a real strange ad with some dude in Camo behind a shitty “interlaced” effect advertising some documentary he made about something big coming. Might be worth your next deep dive.

I wonder what happened and who arrived in 2015 in sweden

Spotify always making the most ethical decisions!

One chunk of DMT hahaha I see you. Culture jamming at it's finest 😍

Super interesting videos thank you for bringing this out to light, it sucks that small artists are getting screwed up by their peers too on top of corporations and greedy labels. I've been looking for an alternative to Spotify for a while now and got recommended on of your videos. I'd love to hear your in depth toughts on how streaming services are ruining how we discover and listen to music. Keep up all the good things you are doing to help artists out, music needs more people like you around

I’m a software engineer who works in the stream royalties collections and writes software to fight streaming fraud. It’s awful.

For me, it re-inforces the sense I've had that entities that hard broadcast paid advertisements on RU-vid likely have a shady aspect. Distrokid, VPNs etc ... a topic you discussed a while back.

Keep in mind Swedish police/crime statistics are worth nothing anymore. And everyone knows the reason. The prime example of good intentions gone wrong.

I love how you equate the rise in gun crime and bombings to the rise in popularity of hip hop and drill music, and not the elephant in the room which is a dramatic shift in the ethnic and cultural makeup of the ghettos that have sprung up when Sweden opened their doors to economic migrants with a sever chip on their shoulder and easy access to firearms.

Great video. The more I watch you, the more I respect you.

Not using Swedish bills for representing our money was a nice touch, mr. American! 😂

"Gets to meet robbers" 😂

Don’t want to start a war in the comments at all: just honestly curious for an elaboration on one of your comments in the video. You mentioned Sweden is going through something similar as america regarding the “popularization of hip-hop and gangs” specifically in the context of increased crime rates. I’m no expert on crime, nor really anything. But the smartest people who I defer to generally disagree with the notion that crime rate in the US in the 90s had anything to do with rap music. Rather the glorification of violence in that era and genre of music is a result of increasing crime rate, not the other way around. Generally what I hear them attribute the 90s high crime rates to is economic policy, the drug war and abortion policy. Curious if you would agree and I’m also wondering if I misunderstood the implication of your comment on the crime rates in the 90s. Love your videos thanks so much 🙏

As an up-and-coming fraudster new to the space but full of drive and love for the game, I’m glad to have discovered this video before 100k views. Shoutout to the youtube algo coming in clutch and Benn for the insightful content.

I saw this video reposted on tik tok, with no credit. But im glad i found the original video. Love from sweden 🇸🇪

Ok. Benefit #8 pushed me over the edge of deciding what next patreon to join ^^. ❤

Any decent accountant can make your ill gotten gains "look" legal for the gubment, it ain't that difficult, that's why most of our politicians aren't in prison when they take massive amounts of dark money from superPAC. You place WAY too much credit on the IRS who will ignore your gains as long as an accountant makes them look mostly legal, IRS don't have time or energy to comb thru every punters finances.

As an Icelander I am highly offended! There are 42 of us 😁

I just had to chuckle when I read your video title, that's genius 😂 You have a brand new subscriber

that thumbnail is how you get put on a corkboard at the fbi hq

Yet another reason to use an ad blocker

What changed in Sweden in the last eight years? Has there been a demographic shift?

is it wrong that i laughed my way through this video? it's like half-as-interesting broke out of the bin

my music has been added onto botted playlists for unknown reasons and i'm always worried when it happens. i've never paid to be on a playlist and i always try to reach out and get it removed when it notice it. maybe it's part of trying to make the playlist seem legit?

Oh yeah gotta sit down for this video

Sorry to hear about your music. Best of luck to you

You allowed me to laugh substantially instead of simply being depressed. Thanks.

Benn, at 4:38 that's Norwegian notes, not Swedish : )

8:14 What do you mean with this? Can you give an example

Outstanding work as usual, Benn 👏🏼

Goddamn the entertainment industry is a cesspool

Absolutely wild. And a phenomenal telling of the story/what’s going on.

If if Itunes ripped off musicians, why would anyone think Spotify wouldn't do the same?

Came for the sensational headline, stayed for the dark humor

Absolutely fabulous and brilliant video, Thank you Benn!!!!!

Thank you for your videos Benn, amazing content

1:50 "Gets to meet robbers" made me laugh hard! Murrican's are definitely more social than us Swedes!

Don't forget the educational purposes disclaimer

how does this tie in to the recent reporting that spotify is thinking of changing payouts to quash various types of content they feel is not "legit" enough to receive a payout?

What you described is not a case of money laundering. It's an arbitrage.

It's so absurdly easy when there's nothing physical to show for money one spent

Really, really, nice video, Benn. Subscribed. Keep them coming!

The only channel worth viewing. Love this analysis

When somebody tells you, "you will probably go to prison", just know they are lying

As soon as you said telegram my weed plug posted a new album😂

The takeaway; if an "artist" is actually making money from Spotify, it's probably fraud. Of course, the reason artists don't make any money is because the industry makes defrauding artists legal.

This just proves how reliable Monereo is 😂

Very interesting and detailed overview! The Swedish establishment allowing Sweden to be flooded with criminals during the "migrant crisis" was truly disgusting. I remember those times. A woman in a wheelchair being gangraped, etc. And anyone who pointed out the insanity of it all was painted as "racist".

We just kind of glossed over a real issue that has been destroying other countries for years. Hip hop culture sucks and destroys the minds of the youth. I was lucky enough to grow out of it before ruining my life or neighborhood.

I’m a naturalised Swede & while I knew that Spotify aren’t doing too well (laying off staff & suing Apple Music just for starters), I’ve not previously heard abt the SvD article. One major issue that is fueling the continuation of the situation as described - which partly ties in with the comment made by Spotify in the aforementioned article - is that Sweden doesn’t currently employ witness anonymity and/or protection, so even when cases do reach the courts, chances are that no-one (presuming they’re still here) is prepared to give evidence or testify for the prosecution/DA. The supposed rationale behind this is bc ppl wld be more likely to fabricate accusations or give false statements if they were allowed to remain anonymous…

Boy I just can't think of any reason why crime is so prevalent in Sweden nowadays.

Wow, this is fucking crazy. What’s almost crazier is that you are an actual polyglot who can do professional music and professional investigative journalism and professional video editing and production. Are you real?

Im anti-distrokid. Not because of this. But because of the shit moderation that makes people think they can just steal songs

4:39 those are Norwegian kroner. Not Swedish kronor. Different countries

Such a fascinating combination of music, technology, and crime!

Hey. It still works on RU-vid too. There are several "musicians" from the Dominican Republic involved into it. They admit it publicly and only 2 of them got their channels banned. In one specific case more than 90% of the video views seem to come from bots. 30 milllion views per month.

German state television reportet the money laundering via Spotify three years ago.

Thank you for the excellent meaningful thoughtful content as always.

I've had two houses blown up within one mile away from my house in the past year lol. It's crazy what prohibition can do to a nation.

Bro got the norwegian kroner in stead of swedish. 4:44

jesus christ thank you benn but what the fuck spotify

this is hilarious. just the fact that this video exists

"If you enjoy this type of content" - Enjoyment is debatable, but I definitely value it. 😆

and I thought sucking at music was the worst thing...I'm kinda glad my music sucks now, Benn you're better than ambien, ty.

Interesting, but why these annoying Axial Cuts every few seconds? Was this video intended to become a TikTok video clip? But even on TikTok, Axial Cuts are completely out of fashion already.

Do you think it was this video that caused all your music to be ripped from streaming services?

Always interesting when you are digging into the inner works of how streaming platforms work!

I'm so happy to have had a chance to watch this video before the YT Overlords flag it for whatever keywords they deem inappropriate at the time

Thank you for demo'ing how bad those DJI wireless mica are. Yikes.

ok now I know my brain is actually slow (also watching this at 6am is not helping), since I didn't fully grasp how this thing actually works I think :( but still, a great video Benn, as always! :) E: I think I get it a little bit more now, even after initial watch this thing seemed batshit crazy tho, also it's sad what happened to this swedish artist

"Just another perk of being a musician in 2023" as sponsorskip cuts off your end of video promotion. God speed lad

Are we really blaming Swedens situation on... music? Everybody in Europe knows what the actual issue is, and even The Swedes are finally starting to admit it.

8:47 math is not right. Sweden tax is around 24% so if you make 3800 it be like 2900 after tax. Minus 1200 it comes to $1700 profit. Not great

Folks may have noticed we are literally drowning in law. So, no: the real threshold isn't $500, but something closer to $30,000 - the occasional prosecutor has been threatened with sanctions for bringing small but high quality cases before some courts.