Spotify Removes Half a Million Streams From Malcolm Todd Song After Kalshi Betting Fraud
The incident shows how prediction markets can create financial incentives for streaming fraud, forcing platforms to publicly correct their charts and tighten detection.
Reporting from 1 sources: GIGAZINE.
Spotify acknowledged bot-driven inflation of play counts for Malcolm Todd's song "Earrings," removing about 500,000 streams. The song had been a betting subject on the prediction market Kalshi, and its sudden rise to number one on Spotify's daily chart prompted fraud allegations. Spotify said it will add checks before publishing charts.
Spotify removed roughly 500,000 streams from Malcolm Todd's 2024 song "Earrings" after the company confirmed the play counts were inflated by bots. The song had become a betting target on the prediction market Kalshi, where traders wager on real-world events. On the day it hit number one on Spotify's daily chart, play counts jumped 70% from the previous day. Prediction market expert Caleb Davis calculated the odds of that rise happening naturally at 1 in 7.7 septillion, pointing to artificial manipulation. Spotify said it does not pay royalties on fraudulently generated plays and plans to introduce additional checks before publishing future charts. Kalshi said it is investigating the matter.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.