Drake Caught In The Crossfire: Spotify Hit With Class Action Over Fake Streams
Written by b87fm on 11/03/2025
Drake’s name is once again making legal headlines — this time tied to a massive lawsuit aimed at Spotify. According to Rolling Stone reporters Nancy Dillon and Jon Blistein, a class action filed Sunday (Nov. 2) in California federal court accuses the streaming giant of knowingly profiting from billions of fake streams — many of which allegedly inflated Drake’s global play counts.
The complaint, spearheaded by rapper RBX — a cousin of Snoop Dogg — claims Spotify “turned a blind eye” to large-scale streaming fraud that disproportionately boosted high-profile artists while cutting into independent musicians’ royalties.
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Between 2022 and 2025, the suit alleges, a “substantial percentage” of Drake’s reported 37 billion streams were generated by bots and fake accounts. One cited example: a suspicious four-day window in 2024 where 250,000 plays of Drake’s “No Face” appeared to originate from Turkey but were rerouted through the UK.
The filing argues Spotify either knew or should have known about the manipulation and failed to intervene.
Because Spotify pays royalties based on a “streamshare” system — where revenue is pooled and divided by total stream counts — the alleged artificial inflation would have directly reduced payouts to other artists. The plaintiffs seek more than $5 million in damages and class certification on behalf of artists impacted by the alleged fraud.
Notably, Drake is not named as a defendant, and the lawsuit doesn’t accuse him of wrongdoing. However, it argues that his catalog was one of the major beneficiaries of the fraudulent activity — and that Spotify tolerated it to enhance its own ad revenue and engagement metrics.
This comes just months after Drake’s failed defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group, in which he accused the label of manipulating data to boost Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
Both Spotify and Drake’s representatives have yet to comment.
If successful, RBX’s lawsuit could mark a turning point for the streaming industry, forcing platforms to account for fake plays — and potentially reshaping how artist royalties are calculated in the digital era.
