Gang members in Sweden have reportedly been utilizing Spotify to launder cash, in response to a Swedish newspaper.
The publication, Svenska Dagbladet, reported that gang members convert cash acquired from drug offers, robberies, fraud, and assassination missions into Bitcoin, which they then use to amass faux streams for artists with gang associations. They then gather the cash paid out to these streams at a later date.
One supply Svenska Dagbladet spoke to stated that Spotify is “superb for recruiting functions,” since gang members can use standard artists, significantly in Sweden’s gangster rap scene, as a entrance for his or her actions. “When you’re a community and also you need to appeal to children and you’ve got a rapper who’s going large, that’s half the job for you,” the supply stated.
One French examine discovered that 3 per cent of streams on companies like Spotify are identified to be fraudulent. The overwhelming majority of these detected in 2021 – 84.5 per cent – have been discovered to be from hip-hop artists. Nevertheless, hip-hop is the preferred style within the French streaming market, and solely 0.4 per cent of the whole hip-hop streams recorded within the nation in 2021 have been decided to be fraudulent.
Spotify declined to remark for the Svenska Dagbladet story and insisted that they’d “no proof” that cash laundering happens on the streaming platform.
In different Spotify information, Taylor Swift has made historical past by changing into the primary feminine artist to hit 100million month-to-month listeners on Spotify.
Earlier this yr, the streamer elevated its subscription costs for the primary time, affecting customers within the UK and the US.
For the UK, the Premium plan now prices £10.99 per 30 days, up from the earlier value of £9.99 month-to-month. Numerous plans for a number of customers have additionally gone up by £1 per 30 days, with a Duo subscription now priced at £14.99 and a Household plan – protecting six folks – now faring at £17.99. Thus far, the one plan to stay unchanged is the Spotify pupil subscription, which stays at £5.99 every month.
