Surely if all the bad streams are coming from the same small number of accounts, or maybe many accounts that don't pay much/any subscription, this problem is simply neutralised by rejigging the payout formula?
then by calculating revenue more fairly as per the formula in the above link the problem goes away.
e.g.
Instead of calculating the amount an artist gets as total revenue * (their plays / total plays)
it was
individual account revenue * (their plays / total plays) summed over all accounts.
This would then penalise the gym/bar or bot accounts, that either aren't paying any money or are generating huge numbers of plays.
Though, cynically you could probably say there's a reason the formula has been done that way so it would be unlikely to change???
Assuming this is still the case: http://markgoldenstein.com/spotify-others-use-unfair-formula...
then by calculating revenue more fairly as per the formula in the above link the problem goes away.
e.g. Instead of calculating the amount an artist gets as total revenue * (their plays / total plays) it was individual account revenue * (their plays / total plays) summed over all accounts. This would then penalise the gym/bar or bot accounts, that either aren't paying any money or are generating huge numbers of plays.
Though, cynically you could probably say there's a reason the formula has been done that way so it would be unlikely to change???