“Stream farming in Nigeria gained prominence with our collective obsession with taking screenshots of number 1 song in the country” – Joey Akan

Nigerian entertainment journalist, Joey Akan has taken to Twitter to express his displeasure with the streaming manipulation that has been a cause of worry for the music industry.

In a series of tweets, Joey stated that musicians’ fascination with boasting about their songs’ top positions on the music charts was the reason stream farming became so popular in the business.

According to him,  stream farming is immoral and artists that engage in it are doing it to deceive their followers, clients, and even other artists.

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Akan also claimed that a musician had employed a stream farmer to work on his tune, boosting the number of streams by using robots or numerous phones.

He said that once Apple learned of the violation, they removed the music and the artist phoned the police to report the farmer he had hired to work on his song.

He wrote;

“Stream farming in Nigeria gained prominence with our collective obsession with taking screenshots of “number 1 song in the country.”
Especially when we all know that Apple Music top 100 isn’t reflective of listener habits. As the chart gain prominence, we decided to hack it.
I know showbiz is rooted in invention and everyone creates a facade for sale. But stream farming isn’t just synthetic social ops. It’s a moral crime against the perpetrator, and other artists looking to advance. You deceive fans, business partners and even your colleagues.
For many, stream farming is more marketing tool, than an end in itself. If I drop a song, I can engineer people to care by pushing it to Top 10 on the charts. When people see a top 10 record, FOMO creeps in and they stream. If they like the song, you have a hit. So for many stream farming is just another way to put the music in front of everyone.
The more people go to these charts to listen to songs, there is a higher chance that they would mindlessly stream through the top 10. If your song is any good, people then love it.
I remember last year when someone dropped a wack jam, and no one cared. He hired a stream farmer to work on it and send bots to jack it up the charts. And initially, they were successful.
And then Apple noticed, pulled it down. Artist carried police and arrested the farmer.
Artist: “You promised to market my song, why has Apple Music removed my song. Please put back my song.
Farmer: “I no know. I did my normal marketing thing.”
Artist: “You will like police station. Olopa ma ko everybody. Oya, enter van.”