Renowned Ghanaian music producer and manager, Bulldog, has sparked intense debate within the music industry by alleging that many Ghanaian artists are artificially inflating their streaming numbers through the use of stream farms.
Speaking on the state of the industry on UTV, Bulldog argued that streaming numbers can no longer be trusted as a genuine reflection of an artiste’s popularity or success.
“They used to say numbers don’t lie. Today, numbers are lying. They are buying the numbers [from] streaming farms. So don’t let them start talking about numbers. It doesn’t make any sense again,” Bulldog asserted.
He further criticized the apparent disconnect between some artists’ impressive online statistics and their real-world impact.
Bulldog pointed out that several artistes, often labeled as A-list in Ghana, boast millions of followers on social media but fail to convert these figures into substantial streams, ticket sales, or audience turnout for live performances.
“We are on the ground; we see people with 1 million followers on Instagram and all that stuff. When they release music, they don’t even get streams up to a thousand or two thousand. That should tell you that the numbers are lying.
When they do shows, nobody will come. We’ve seen it. When they go abroad, they can’t do [anything]. And these are considered A-list artists here,” he said.