For years, there have been rumors of “fake artists” secretly operating on Spotify. Now, one Swedish newspaper claims to have uncovered the man behind hundreds of these mysterious profiles.
Dagens Nyheter reports that a composer named Johan Röhr has flooded the platform with over 2,700 songs released under various fabricated artist names. Some highlights include the melodic meanderings of “Minik Knudsen” and “Mingmei Hsueh”, alongside others like “Csizmazia Etel” and “Adelmar Borrego”.
Through strategic pseudonyms and placements across Spotify’s playlists, Röhr’s music has allegedly amassed a staggering 15 billion total streams. To put that in perspective, even legends like Michael Jackson and The Beatles pale in comparison to Röhr’s remarkable reach.
The newspaper traces Röhr’s journey from conducting tours for major stars to quietly dominating Spotify from behind the scenes. Using clever covers, he supposedly flew under the radar for years as one of the service’s top creators.
According to reports, Röhr’s behind-the-scenes success has translated to financial fortunes as well. His private companies have reportedly earned over $6.7 million in recent years from royalty payments alone.
So how did one man pull off such a grand musical mirage without detection? The answer appears to lie in Spotify’s own playlists, where Röhr’s compositions enjoyed prolific placement across popular mood and relaxation playlists. In some cases, over 40 of an individual playlist’s songs trace back to Röhr.
While the full truth remains unclear, one thing is reportedly not in dispute – Johan Röhr has emerged as a 21st-century streaming star who rewrote the rules of the game. Through his many masks, a secret maestro seems to have been conducting Spotify’s unseen music machine all along.
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