Labels, Streaming Services, More Endorse Code of Conduct to Fight Stream Manipulation

It’s safe to assume that as soon as the music industry established streaming charts, people were trying to game them. In fact, at a panel during A2IM’s Indie Week on Tuesday, one panelist stated that 3-4% of all officially counted music audio and video streams are not legitimate. On that note, a coalition of artist organizations — 24 major companies and organizations, including major and independent labels, publishers and digital service providers — today announced their support of a new “Code of Best Practices” aimed at preventing and detecting stream manipulation, as well as mitigating against its effects in the marketplace. Read the Code in the link below. Variety has been contacted by some but not all of the involved parties, who confirmed their participation; Variety has also obtained a copy of an internal memo issued by Sony Music earlier this month outlining similar policies.