Written by Lexi Murray
Astroturfing has been an ongoing problem in corporate and political groups for many years; however, it has recently become a larger topic of public discussion and exploitation by the public. The practice of astroturfing is when a company, political group, or any other type of other powerful entity disguises themselves as ordinary participants and supporters of their company or product at large. These astroturfing specialists mask their message by insinuating that they have support by grassroots participants and that the message is actually from their “supporters.” Astroturfing is hard to exploit unless one is really looking for it and trying to analyze the message as well as the source of the message.
Astroturfing has been seen as commonplace in corporate and political groups, however, it is very prominent in other industries as well – including the music industry. The number-one major music label in the world is Universal Music Group. The article, “Major Labels Begin Major Astroturfing Campaign To Get 3 Strikes In The US” written by Mike Masonic from Tech Dirt in 2020, speaks on the corruption and astroturfing that has taken place in the music industry. Masnick exposed an email supposedly from CEO of Universal Music Group that was pushing for new laws regarding copyright infringement. The CEO was hoping to implement a 3 strikes and you’re out ruled from the public after three copyright infringement accusations, and he apparently had a lot of support behind his thinking; "I’ve received hundreds of e-mails enthusiastically reacting to my ‘call to action’ at the National Association of Recording Merchandisers convention last month. The music business is facing huge challenges from piracy and theft. Never before in American history has an entire industry been so decimated by illegal behavior. Yet the government has not responded in a meaningful way to help us address this crisis."
The preceding quote indicates the CEO has “hundreds” of enthusiastic emails as proof that this copyright law should be implemented. Another part of Masnick's skepticism was a Facebook page made for the organization “Music Rights Now” that also exhibited astroturfing wording and behavior.
(Picture from Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MusicRightsNow)
Masnick’s point was that the CEO of Universal Music Group would not be reached let alone the one to come out with information from a grassroots organization hoping to put a stop to copyright infringement by calling it “theft” and simply just creating a Facebook page. It was the work of people behind the scenes at Universal hoping to get their law implemented.
Spotify has also been accused of astroturfing by allegedly promoting fake artists to increase their number of users. In the article “What’s really going on with Spotify’s fake artist controversy” written in 2017 by Dani Deahl and Micah Singleton from the Verge, they discuss allegations and denials from Spotify about these fake artists. They also disclose a source indicating that Spotify reaches out to labels for specific songs they want to have on their playlists with the goal to gain more supporters in an artificial way.
As well as corporations within the music industry, artists have been caught astroturfing as well. These artists include Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. The examples are unfortunately endless. The real question is, how can we, as the public, learn to identify astroturfing and exploit the sources involved?
Lots of Astroturfing articles but this one stood out to me having previously worked in the music industry before returning for graduate school. This is a VERY big dilemma on the streaming side of the industry which is accounting for the the industries first positive numbers in over a decade really. It's especially interesting to see the variety astroturfing can take on with larger artists like Bieber and Gomez who already make millions via touring and other business ventures.
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