Dawn Images

Singer Abdul Hannan’s accounts on Spotify and Apple Music have been hijacked by scammers uploading fake or AI-generated music, according to his team.

Taking to their Instagram on Monday, Hannan’s team shared a statement that the artist reposted to his official Instagram story. “Hannan’s streaming accounts, like Spotify/Apple Music, are currently being misused with fake or Al- generated music being uploaded,” the statement read.

“Scammers are attempting to profit from unauthorised streams, affecting many artists. We’re aware of the issue and are working to resolve it quickly,” it added.

The team requested fans to refrain from streaming these unauthorised songs, warning, “Any new music from Hannan will be announced on his official Instagram account.” They appealed to streaming services such as Spotify to address the issue promptly.

Upon opening Hannan’s Spotify profile, an unusual song titled ‘Akha Cilam Cilam Valo’ is among his popular releases. The song features an unrelated individual’s picture as its artwork and has never been announced by Hannan nor released by him.

Images has reached out to Spotify to comment on the situation but hasn’t received a response yet.

Scams involving streaming accounts are not uncommon. In September, a man in the US was accused of using AI tools and thousands of bots to fraudulently stream songs billions of times to earn streaming revenue.

In December 2020, Dua Lipa and Lana Del Rey had their Spotify pages defaced by a hacker who posted messages about Donald Trump and Taylor Swift. The hacker replaced their biographies and profile photos.

Streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music allow artists to upload music through third-party distributors. Scammers can exploit this system to upload counterfeit content, bypassing verification processes.

With the rise of AI tools, generating music has been made easy for artists and scammers alike, making it that much easier to produce counterfeit songs mimicking an artist’s style. While those with access to such tools can tell the difference between real and fake, casual listeners could be fooled into believing they’re listening to their favourite artist and end up generating revenue for the scammers.

There is also the question of whether music (even fraudulent content) being uploaded to an artist’s account would still benefit the artist when streamed. The answer isn’t always straightforward.

If a scammer uploads unauthorised tracks and routes payments to their accounts, they pocket the royalties. And even if royalties were directed to the artist, such subpar or AI-generated content could tarnish an artist’s credibility.

Unauthorised streams also inflate metrics, making it difficult for artists to track the true performance of their own work.