Spotify Sued by Rapper Who Alleges It’s Ignoring Streaming Fraud

A rapper sued Spotify Technology SA, saying the music streamer “deliberately turns a blind eye” to fraud that inflates streaming numbers and warps how royalties are distributed to artists.

Spotify created ideal conditions for bots to artificially inflate streams for certain artists and hasn’t done enough to stop it, Eric Dwayne Collins, who goes by “RBX,” said in a proposed class action filed Sunday in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

Collins’ lawsuit arrives as the music industry grapples with fake listenership on streaming platforms that is partly exacerbated by AI-generated music. Collins’ lawsuit doesn’t ...