Aaron Sand has called out both Spotify and his distributor; alleging that his single “Still Here (For Dad)” was falsely flagged for bot streaming activity by the platform, resulting in his distributor removing the track from all platforms.
The single “Still Here (For Dad)” which Aaron wrote for his father (who passed away in the 9/11 terror attacks) was originally released on August 23rd, 2022.
The singer stated in a recent post that upon seeing a large influx of streams for the song, Spotify had contacted his management about the matter. Both Aaron and his team each responded stating they knew nothing about this, and that neither Aaron, nor anybody on his team had any involvement.
As a known controversial figure who frequently speaks out on many issues, Aaron and his team stated that if there was bot activity, they speculate someone may have targeted him with bot streams to get his music taken down. It is a known problem in the industry that you can easily buy fake streams for any given song, regardless of whether or not you are the artist or have any involvement with the artist.
This can result in penalties for the artist, including removing the song from streaming platforms.
Aaron’s current label and management (PennyFly Entertainment) uses many different distributors for their artists, and currently uses DistroKid to distribute Aaron’s songs.
DistroKid has been known to abruptly flag and remove songs from the profiles of artists and small labels who use their services without any correspondence or proof, causing thousands of artists to speak out over the years.
Despite Spotify having been made aware of all this, they still went ahead and reached out to the star’s distributor, resulting in the single being removed from all platforms.
As if Spotify falsely removing the single wasn’t bad enough, the singer was also donating 50% of the proceeds from “Still Here” to the 9/11 Tribute Center in an attempt to help them reopen their physical location, which unfortunately had to close due to lack of funding.
This puts both Spotify and the distributor under even more scrutiny, as the flagging and removal of the track takes funding away from charity.
Aaron and his management said in their statement that they have been in communication with the distributor and are working to get the single restored. However, the single has yet to be put back up on platforms.
Both Spotify and DistroKid have yet to say anything on this matter publicly.
We asked Aaron’s team for a statement, and here’s what they had to say: “We are extremely upset by the removal of “Still Here (For Dad)” and are working hard to get the single restored. Should the distributor refuse to remove the flag and restore it, we are prepared to take further action as necessary to ensure that the single is restored to all platforms along with the streams and revenue and that Spotify and the current distributor are held accountable.”