A Composer Behind 650 Spotify Fake Artists Finally Unmasked

Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) uncovered Johan Röhr, a Swedish-based musician, as the creator behind more than 650 artists on Spotify. Overall, Röhr’s music generated more than 15 billion cumulative streams, making him Sweden’s most-streamed artist and one of the most successful artists globally. In fact, he is estimated to rank #64 in the top 100 most-streamed artists list, just below Avicii and above the American rock band Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

As the 47-year-old composer revealed to the newspaper, he has created more than 2,700 songs on the platform released under a variety of pseudonyms, including ‘Maya Åström,’ ‘Minik Knudsen,’ ‘Mingmei Hsueh,’ and ‘Csizmazia Etel.’

Altogether, he released music under an estimated “50 composer aliases and at least 656 invented artist names.” He has specialized in relaxation and background music, and many of his tracks have been featured in Spotify’s official instrumental playlists.

DN has not disclosed the total revenue Röhr generated through his music on Spotify, but all indications suggest it was substantial. Reportedly, his private company generated over SEK 70 million (approximately USD $6.3 m) between 2020 and 2022. Furthermore, his 2022 financial report revealed earnings equivalent to nearly USD $30m in that year alone, all derived from music royalties. He certainly knows how to make money on Spotify...

DN has also exposed the strategy behind Röhr’s remarkable success: his prominent presence in Spotify’s official playlists. The Swedish newspaper revealed that Röhr’s tracks were featured in “at least” 144 official Spotify playlists under various artist pseudonyms. In eleven of those, more than 20% of the songs were attributed to him. Altogether, his compositions were included in “well over a hundred different playlists for instrumental music,” collectively followed by over 62 million followers. Notably, in one of the prominent instrumental playlists with over 1.45 million followers, called Stress Relief, 41 out of 270 tracks were released by fake Spotify artists whose music was made by Röhr.

According to a statement from his record label, Overtone Studios, the real-life artist is regarded as a “pioneer in the mood music genre.” He is also said to have significantly reduced the number of artist profiles through which he’s actively released music, leaving more space for other artists in the genre.

Röhr's story is one of many in the recurring issue of “fake artists,” much like the problems of fake streams and fake Spotify playlists. One similar case to Röhr’s involved Swedish singer Christer Sandelin and his label, Chilmi. According to a report by another Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, Sandelin was responsible for creating “chill” tracks that’d be featured in Spotify’s official playlists under fake names since 2015. These tracks reportedly accumulated over two billion streams. The claim suggests that Sandelin was directly approached by the streaming platform and offered a deal to produce music for the chillout playlists, operating as a ghostwriter.

Over the years, numerous publications, including Vulture Magazine and Music Business Worldwide (MBW), have accused the streaming platform of commissioning songs and listing them on the platform under fake artist names. The purpose of such a practice has allegedly been to reduce the royalty payouts to legitimate artists.

In 2016, MBW reported that Spotify paid flat fees for tracks of various music genres, including “jazz, chill, and peaceful piano playing,” to be featured under fake, fabricated artist profiles. While the publication couldn’t name the specific artist names, it allegedly identified about five “Spotify-owned tracks,” each with over 500,000 streams and one with more than a million streams.

Similarly, in 2017, Vulture Magazine accused Spotify of bypassing its own system by paying producers to create tracks that are then intentionally featured in the platform’s official, massively popular playlists under the name of unknown, unreal artist names. The magazine has further alleged that this flat fee Spotify paid to producers and creators was supposedly much lower than what it would pay real artists for the same placement. Therefore, it’s assumed that such an alleged practice would allow Spotify to save significant costs on streaming while maintaining a larger percentage of the royalty pool to maximize profits.

While the platform has categorically denied these claims, emphasizing that they simply don’t pay themselves, allegations persist. MBW further reported that they had contacted a European musician who claimed he was hired to create tracks for fabricated artists featured on prominent genre-based playlists. The online publication has also noted an unusual number of artists who have generated millions of streams but show no verifiable documentation and information on their identity or collaborations.

Other writers and journalists have been investigating the controversy surrounding Spotify fake artists. For instance, music writer David Turner analyzed data from the platform’s Ambient Chill playlist and found that many established artists in the genre, like Brian Eno and Jon Hopkins, were being substituted by stock music, mainly from Epidemic Sound. This company has been known for specializing in royalty-free stock music often used in commercials, TV programs, and other video content.

Turner’s finding was just the tip of the iceberg. Building on this discovery, journalist Liz Pelly began reporting on music streaming services and exploring an alleged practice that many industry professionals started being concerned about. Since 2017, she’s been conducting a thorough investigation of Spotify’s actions, interviewing former Spotify employees and artists, and analyzing company Slack messages and internal records.

She uncovered an “elaborate internal program” called Perfect Fit Content (PFC), in which Spotify employees were deliberately asked to include commissioned music in their editorial playlists. Speculation arose that PFC was established in 2017 to allow Spotify to capitalize on the popularity of its curated playlists, which are often listened to as background soundtracks. Given that listeners were often only partially engaged with these playlists, Spotify reportedly deemed it justifiable to reduce royalty payouts accordingly.

"As a result, the thinking seemed to be: Why pay full-price royalties if users were only half listening? It was likely from this reasoning that the Perfect Fit Content program was created," said a former Spotify employee, explaining the rationale behind PFC.

Internal Slack messages revealed that “PFC providers,” including Epidemic Sound, Firefly Entertainment, and others, were actively prioritized for playlist placement. Moreover, playlist editors who were hesitant to support PFC were reportedly being replaced by individuals who were more amenable to the program.

Pelly published her findings on PFC in a 2025 Harper’s Magazine article titled "The Ghosts in the Machine." The piece became a sensation in various media outlets, receiving coverage from prominent music outlets such as NME, The Fader, Futurism, and others. The article is also featured in her 2025 book about the PFC phenomenon, titled Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist.