Spotify Deletes Half a Million Streams After Suspicious Kalshi Bet

In early July 2026, Spotify removed approximately 500,000 streams from the song "Earrings" by Malcolm Todd: the track suspiciously climbed rapidly to the top of the American daily chart at the same time a bet on the predictive platform Kalshi opened for its entry into the top. The company also stated that it would require Kalshi and another major predictive market, Polymarket, to remove its logo from their websites.

How

Spotify Discovered the Manipulation The sudden rise of an obscure track would not have seemed unusual in itself—if not for the precise timing alignment. The bet on Kalshi was placed before "Earrings" rapidly climbed to the top of the US daily chart, and it was this timing coincidence that alerted Spotify moderators. Music streaming has long struggled with artificial stream inflation: bots and "listening farms" have existed since the first streaming services appeared.

However, this case stands out from the rest. The financial motive turned out to be publicly documented directly in the Kalshi interface: anyone could see that someone had placed money on the success of "Earrings" on the charts. This meant that interested parties had a direct financial incentive to organize artificial streams—and the profit was visible in advance.

According to Spotify's investigation results, approximately 500,000 plays were recognized as unreliable and removed from statistics.

• Approximately 500,000 streams removed as artificially inflated The track "Earrings" by Malcolm Todd rapidly climbed to the top of the US daily chart The Kalshi bet appeared before the sharp rise in the track's position—this coincidence triggered an investigation * Polymarket is also mentioned in Spotify's requirements—the second-largest predictive platform in the United States ## What Spotify Demanded from Kalshi and Polymarket The removal of streams was not the end of the matter. Spotify sent official demands to two leading American predictive markets—Kalshi and Polymarket. The company demanded they remove its logo from both sites and explicitly state that neither platform is an official partner of Spotify, does not receive licensed data from it, and is not connected to its charts in any official capacity. Essentially, both platforms used the Spotify brand as a basic asset for their bets without any agreement with the company. Kalshi and Polymarket de facto transformed positions in music charts into financial instruments—without asking permission from the platform whose data determines the outcome of the bet. Predictive markets are financial platforms where users make bets on outcomes of real-world events: elections, sports results, asset prices. Kalshi became the first American service to receive federal approval for such operations. Both services have actively expanded their offerings in recent years: following the spectacular success of bets on US presidential elections, they have moved into the categories of pop culture, sports, and entertainment, including music charts and film releases.

What

This Means The "Earrings" incident exposed a systemic vulnerability: predictive markets create a new vector for chart manipulation with a publicly documented financial incentive. Previously, stream manipulations were merely a reputational risk without an obvious beneficiary; now participants have a clear monetary profit that can be tracked in advance. Streaming platforms will need to monitor not only suspicious spikes in plays but also real-time activity on predictive markets.