Mysterious Spotify Artists And Streams Cause Concern

Bergenulo Five, Onyxia, Doublin Night and Funkena are just a few of the so-called 'mysterycore' artists' names who have confounded listeners in the past months when they popped up in their Spotify listening history.

Many of the Spotify users who noticed this suspicious activity attest that they never searched for the artists and do not know who they are, according to a new BBC report that sheds light on the issue. After BBC requested contact information for the artists from Spotify, they soon disappeared from the streaming platform altogether.

"We take the artificial manipulation of streaming activity on our service extremely seriously," the company told BBC in a statement. "These artists were removed because we detected abnormal streaming activity in relation to their content."

Many Spotify users did not notice the 'mysterycore' bands in their listening history until the end-of-the-year 2018 Wrapped feature was available, revealing the ambiguous artists' presence in their streaming histories. When users searched for the bands online they found no social media accounts or websites connected to them, the report revealed.

The bands shared many characteristics, such as short, instrumental songs with generic titles and album artwork, yet some of the artists received thousands of streams.

Spotify's response to the investigation was vague and did not mention who or what would have "forced" the accounts to listen to the music or whether the artists had received money for the streams.