Music cloud platform Tuned Global is rolling out a streaming Service Manipulation Detection (SMD) solution as a new offering for rights-holders and streaming service clients.
The announcement comes at a time when streaming manipulation has become a serious concern across the digital music industry. Industry execs tackle the issue in the new edition of Music Week.
Label licensing requirements now routinely expect platforms to maintain formal measures for detecting and preventing suspicious activity at the track, artist, user, network and payment levels.
The technology behind Tuned Global’s streaming SMD is designed to give music streaming services and catalogue owners a structured, integrated layer of protection against stream manipulation, built into the platform rather than dependent on a separate specialist system.
The solution provides monitoring, automated safeguards and governance processes designed to identify and limit artificial activity that distorts play counts, chart positions and royalty distributions.
Rights-holders and labels are increasingly explicit in their expectations around streaming integrity, particularly as manipulation directly impacts royalty allocation and chart performance
Con Raso
Tuned Global CEO Con Raso said introducing this service was a critical step in ensuring clients could continue to comply with the processes rights holders have in place to protect against artificial streaming activity.
“Rights-holders and labels are increasingly explicit in their expectations around streaming integrity, particularly as manipulation directly impacts royalty allocation and chart performance,” he said. “In licensing discussions, they are looking for platforms to demonstrate clearly defined detection frameworks, including the ability to identify suspicious activity at multiple levels (track, user, network), apply consistent thresholds, and maintain auditability over decisions.”
He added: “There is also a strong expectation that platforms can take enforceable action, such as excluding artificial streams from royalty calculations and reporting, and provide transparent reporting back to rights-holders.
“The streaming Service Manipulation Detection solution gives Tuned Global’s clients and their licensing partners a clear, documented system for monitoring, reporting, and enforcement.”
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