It's not that simple.
We've worked with a few musicians in the past. And almost each one of them had been outreached by one of these services. The prospect of receiving a million streams for a few thousand will make anyone's mouth water.
However, let's be real.
Shopify plays cannot be arbitraged. Meaning, you cannot "buy" a million views and expect to be paid higher royalties.
Shopify has a distinct algorithm and periodically removes artist. So if you were to lose an algorithm in a sweep, you'd be out of your money.
Additionally, the biggest problems that we've always cautioned our client is "Related Artist".
The shopify algorithm works very similar to Amazon or Netflix's when it detects Related content. They do this by determining if a lot of people listen to the same artist.
What this means is that, you will almost always be found related to those artists that have also purchased streams. Unknown names, unbranded profiles. Since these bot accounts don't actually listen to any other popular artists, this becomes a problem. Think of it like being in bad company.
So my 2c would be to stay away from these if you're a legitimate artist.
