1. Five checks you can do yourself
A botted Spotify playlist has followers or plays that do not come from people listening. A follower count on its own does not show whether anyone listens, so these five checks look at the traces around the playlist.
- Compare the followers with the curator. A playlist with tens of thousands of followers, run from a curator profile with almost no followers of its own, can be real, but it is worth a second look. Also check how old the playlist is and how often new tracks are added.
- Look for the playlist under Discovered On. Open the Spotify profiles of three or four artists in the playlist and look at the Discovered On section, which lists playlists. A playlist that people listen to tends to show up under some of its artists. A large playlist that shows up under none of them is a warning sign.Our view We found no Spotify page that explains how the playlists in this section are chosen, so this check is our reading of what the profiles show, not a Spotify rule.
- Read the track list. Watch for genres that do not belong together, tracks that were added years ago with nothing new since, and famous artists placed next to tracks from artists nobody knows. A playlist built for listening usually has a clear idea behind it.
- Read the description and the curator profile. A description that offers paid placement, or asks you to send a message on WhatsApp to get in, is a warning sign. Spotify says services that offer guaranteed playlist placement for money break its terms and should not be used.Spotify Support
- Check how the followers grew. Steady growth looks normal. Spotify lists "a sudden and short-lived increase in follower growth" among the signs of artificial streaming.Spotify for Artists To see this, you need the follower count over a period of time. A tool that records the followers, such as the PlaylistLookup health check, keeps that history for you.
Industry articles describe similar checks, for example on Hypebot and CD Baby's DIY Musician blog.
2. How strong each signal is
No signal proves that a Spotify playlist is botted. Some weigh more than others, and they mean most when you read them together.
| Signal | What it suggests | How to check | Strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Followers far above the curator's own audience | The playlist may have bought followers | Compare the playlist's followers with the followers of the curator profile and the age of the playlist | Weak signal |
| Artists in the playlist do not list it under Discovered OnOur view | People may not be listening through the playlist | Open the Spotify profiles of a few artists in the playlist and look for it under Discovered On | Warning sign |
| Tracks that do not fit together | The playlist may be built to sell placements, not to be listened to | Scan the track list for mixed genres, old additions and big names next to unknown ones | Weak signal |
| A description or curator that sells placement | The curator may take money for placements, which Spotify does not allow | Read the playlist description and the curator profile | Warning sign |
| Followers that jump in a short time | Followers may have been added in bulk | Needs the follower count over a period of time | Weak signal |
Strength is PlaylistLookup's own view, not a Spotify rule.
3. What these checks do not prove
A playlist that fails one of these checks can still have real listeners, and a playlist that passes them can still be botted. Real playlists can have odd follower jumps too. Treat the checks as a reason to look closer, not as a verdict, and do not publish claims that a named curator uses bots.
4. Check faster with the playlist health check
The PlaylistLookup playlist health check runs checks 2 and 5 for you and adds more. It looks for the playlist in the Discovered On sections of its artists, keeps a history of the follower count, rates how well the genres fit and how established the curator profile is, and ends with a short AI assessment and an estimated range of monthly listeners. Like the checks above, its result is an estimate, not proof.
Not listed by any of the 30 artists checked.
Example data, not a real playlist. Scores and listener ranges are estimates.
Every plan includes health checks each month: 1 health check on Free, 15 health checks on Basic and 50 health checks on Pro. See how the health check works.
5. What to do with a suspicious playlist
If a playlist looks botted, do not pitch it. If your music is already on a playlist you doubt, Spotify for Artists shows the playlists your music has been added to, ordered by how many of your listeners each one brings, for the last 12 months. A playlist appears there once your music has at least 3 listeners on it.Spotify for Artists
Spotify asks artists who notice signs of artificial streaming to share what they know with their distributor or label, and it lets you report suspicious playlists your music has been added to.Spotify for ArtistsSpotify Support Read those pages to decide what fits your situation.
6. A worked example
An artist finds "Example Night Drive Mix", a playlist with 52,900 followers. The curator profile has no followers. The last track was added four years ago. Three artists in the playlist do not list it under Discovered On. Each of these signals is weak on its own. Together they say: do not pitch this one.
Fictional example. No real playlist or curator.