Bettors Are Already Botting Spotify Streams To Game Prediction Markets

The intersection of music and prediction markets just got incredibly messy. According to a report from The FADER, Spotify had to step in late last week and slice 500,000 fraudulent streams from Malcolm Todd’s single "Earrings," dropping the track from the #1 spot down to #4 on its U.S. chart. The sudden spike in plays wasn't some organic viral moment; it was a coordinated bot attack triggered by users on the betting platform Kalshi trying to rig a payout. While the scam wasn't tied to Todd or his label, "Earrings" became the perfect target for manipulation. Prediction markets are booming right now, but music streaming is uniquely soft to this kind of hustle because bot farms are cheap and easy to run. Spotify told WIRED that no royalty payouts were messed up by the fake plays, but Kalshi had already resolved the bets, leaving them scrambling to figure out how to reimburse the users who got cheated out of their cash. Now, Spotify is pushing both Kalshi and Polymarket to yank their branding off these betting pools. It was only a matter of time before someone tried to game the system like this.