Nine 9 Blog of Thursday, 20 July 2023
Source: nine 9
Nigerian rapper Emeka Akmeful, known professionally as Blackbones, has revealed that some artists are topping music charts without real listeners.
The rapper, who is currently on a media tour following the successful release of his hit song "Ice Spice," revealed that some of the top 10-20 artists on Nigeria's Spotify and Apple Music Top Songs charts are backed by Streamfarm.
According to Blackbones, such activity deceives listeners and creates a false sense of popularity among certain artists. This allows artists with few real listeners to reach the Top 20, masking the well-deserved talent that truly garnered a fanbase.
The topic of streaming farms dominated social media trends in 2022, following a verbal exchange between artist BNXN fka Buju and Ruger. The scam, which is prevalent around the world, was previously thought to be non-existent in Nigeria, but has now come to light and caused concern among artists and music lovers.
A streaming farm is a network of devices such as smartphones and computers that are used to play specific songs to make it look like many online her listeners are listening online. These devices mimic human-like online listening and artificially increase the number of streams.
Signed to the Chocolate City label, Blaqbonez' distinctive rapping style and creative ingenuity have made him a household name in the entertainment industry.
In 2019, he was featured in The New York Times as one of the new guardians of Nigerian music.