YouTube Deletes 2 Billion Fake Views From Universal, Sony & RCA Videos

    It looks like three major record companies – Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG and RCA Records – are in hot water with YouTube. According to The Daily Dot, the popular Internet video provider has stripped the three music groups of more than 2 billion falsified video views.

    Last week, YouTube’s parent company Google retracted upwards of 2 billion views from videos published by UMG, Sony/BMG and RCA. These views are believed to be the product of “black hat” view count-building techniques, in which third-party companies inflate the total view tallies as a means to manipulate a video’s popularity and its increase exposure on YouTube.

    The biggest offender of the three record houses was Universal Music Group, who was stripped of over a billion views out of its total 7 billion hits. Sony/BMG and RCA were hardly spared either, with the two companies losing 850 million and 159 million views, respectively.

    Yet these lost views aren’t the only punitive measures that Google has taken against the three companies. All but five of UMG’s published videos have been deleted from its channel, while the number of videos on Sony’s channel has been pared down to three.

    Google’s crackdown on these black hat views has affected more than 500 different official artist channels, including channels for Chris Brown, Beyoncé, Michael Jackson and many more.

    UMG is the first of the three companies to acknowledge its dip in views, and cited its shift to publishing videos on VEVO as the reason why its YouTube channel had been downsized. DX will keep you updated as more information comes to light.

    RELATED: RCA Records Closes Jive, Arista And J Records

    95 thoughts on “YouTube Deletes 2 Billion Fake Views From Universal, Sony & RCA Videos

    1. I knew something was fishy, so many views for bullshit records. YouTube trying to help rebuild hip hop credibility. From the jump, I knew there was an agenda behind that VEVO shit.

    2. as stated below, other sites are guilty of this. Except they get away with. It was always laughable to me how people actually believed that meek mill got millions of downloads on his mixtape on datpiff. After his first week sales i thought peopel would have caught on to the bullshit and manipulation of numbers as a false marketing strategy, but some people still holding on to that shit. get all the way the fuck out of here.

    3. heres the numbers of fake views if you’re interested

      universalmusicgroup -1,015,800,118
      sonybmg -851,488,973
      BritneyTV -462,567,893
      jawed -326,360,381
      michaeljackson -287,341,860
      hollywoodrecords -251,531,439
      ChrisBrownTV -187,412,448
      RCARecords -159,532,674
      beyonce -151,445,205
      linkinparktv -146,017,677
      shakira -137,394,924
      AvrilLavigne -124,277,862
      MoTv1 -116,394,756
      TPainVideos -110,169,389
      JordinSparks -107,013,443
      kellyclarkson -95,918,188
      ushertv -82,616,548
      CiaraTV -79,535,904
      systemofadown -78,234,702
      justintimberlakeTV -75,011,470
      PinkVideoVault -74,924,862
      blackeyedpeasvideo -66,523,729
      RKellyTV -57,695,213
      PitbullMusic -49,666,988
      taylorswift -48,653,985
      ChristinaAguilera -46,542,374
      KardinalOffishall416 -37,925,779
      prettyrickyvideos -33,191,497
      WeirdAlTV -32,561,762
      kennychesney -28,989,842
      PliesWorld -17,134,607
      kesha -15,607,816
      PitbullVEVO -11,483,509

      1. ha ha the truth is out
        i knew it
        too bad they can’t unwarp these young childrens minds that will never see this post because they are watching rick ross and linkin park on you tube right now
        it’s sad how a number of views and fake popularity works on our feeble minded society where these kids have to leave it to others to decide if they like something

        example of sadness…
        boy clicks on niki to see her ass…. you might also like this
        boy clicks on Rick Ross… oh millions of views this must be good let me act like and idiot like that and i will be cool
        I knew no one liked this shit

      1. MMG lol! That was William Roberts and co. wasn’t it? No wonder he trying to switch labels n shit.. fucking coward. Now we’re just waiting for the death threats towards him to fall through, and him letting go of the name he stole. Maybe those things will come hand in hand.

    4. hahahahahhahahahahaha.. I knew it. I was either losing faith in society or knew something was up. And thank you DX for finally posting something that isn’t BS.

      1. how does this make your life better. you sound pathetic.you “real hip hop” still floppin on the chart. why does someone elses misfortune make you feel better. misery loves company

      2. Someone misfortunes? They faked it! Thats no misfortune that’s some scandalous shit, some corrupt shit that needs to be dealt with. Its everyone else misfortune that they re in a industry that blocks them out and fakes views to make the less relevant. Get your mind correct nigga! These rich fucks give no shit about you, yet your dumb ass defense them.

      3. Yeah real hip hop flopping that’s why Kendrick Lamar has the top selling rap album of the year unless you count Nicki Minaj.

      4. i wasnt talking about kendrick. i was talking about the “real hip hop” genre you hipster faggots have been crying about for the last 7 years.

      5. Anonymous #2, the reason it makes me feel better is because you, a fan of the fake bullshit, feels worse.. “how does this make your life better”, who the fuck mentioned their life getting better? You may as well admit this article made your bitch ass life worse.. go cry yourself to sleep with the realization that not as many people are listening to YMCMB as you thought.

    5. Wow, what a surprise!

      Now when is HHDX going to admit it’s own policies, how major labels pay $$$ for song and article placement, with the ‘understanding’ of a postitive review when the time comes?

      Ya’ll are fucking corrupt too!!!

      1. Best comment: “Stop Hustling backwards.” 2-Chainz for the Grammy nod? Album of the year? Hahahahahahah! Lupe! Chritiano Can! Saigon! We need you!!!!

    6. you hipsters have such low expectations in your life you take this as some sot of victory. you favorite underground rappers still have 3000 views. and katy perry still has over 20 million. this ….changes…..nothing. smh maybe you should worry about actually buying albums and support your favorite rappers instead of praying for the downfall of the ones you dont like. stop hustling backwards.

      1. Nice way to stereotype every ass hole. This is fair anyway you look at it, weather you are a underground fan or mainstream. o take your simple ass somewhere else and cry nigga.

      2. Lol someone sounds upset. Of course Its a victory for my favourite “underground” acts that are on “3000” views. It has less to do with the fake views YouTube had to remove and more to do with the shady practice of number fixing itself, but if thats the sort of shit you support I can’t stop you from “hustling forwards” dumbass mutherfucker.

      3. None of my favorite underground rappers have 3000 views, your the typical douche who thinks rappers that arent on TV have no fans. Most of my favorite Indy acts have at least a couple videos with over a million plays.

        Doesn’t change the fact that Universal & them other cats had to cheat to make it seem like there artist are more popular then they are to trick the rest of the sheep into following suit

        Next time you Posty just type “Bahh Bahh” as your screen name

    7. GO CHECK YOUTUBE YMCMB VIEWS IS STILL UP THERE. THATS BECAUSE WE MAKE STARS AT YMCMB NO REASON TO FAKE VIEWS IF YOU ARE ON A WINNING TEAM.

    8. Who cares i got 4 million views just putting up styles p jadakiss freestyles n stuff i wanted to hear i dont care bout gettin as many views as i can i just love hip hop so uploaded the stuff like thats why i aint even gon write my utube channel name

    9. Im not surprised by this at all… Some of those videos have ridiculous numbers attached to them. And they get popular so fast…It made no sense. Now im just waiting for them to expose record sales… Drake: 600,000?? while Nicki Minaj: 200,000+ BULLSHIT! Kendrick Lamar and J Cole 200,000+? BULLSHIT Adele, Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift… All these peoples sales are fake as fuck.

      1. Looking at Kendrick’s buzz, the success of Swimming Pools, and his sales after the first week I can see how he might have sold 240,000 first week. It looks a bit high but I can definitely see it. Adele and Taylor Swift’s sales may have been boosted a bit by labels but the vast majority was fans.. look how big they were
        Wayne selling more then Recovery first week looks a bit fake to me so I think the label bought 250,000+
        Cole had a huge following
        Drake’s on his way to being the most popular rapper once Lil Wayne starts dieing out and Eminem stops rapping so his sales are legit

      2. What is really fake is mixtape downloads..
        and MMG clearly leads with fake downloads
        How does Meek Mill do over 2 million first day while the site crashes…? And then a year later hasn’t even doubled his FIRST DAY downloads?
        Rick Ross’ downloads look really fake too.

      3. KENDRICK HAD DRE BUY HIS ALBUMS YMCMB HAS BUZZ NIGGA WE WINNING OVER HEAR U NOTICE THAT OUR VIEWS STAYED THE SAME THATS CUS PEOPLE LOVE YMCMB

      4. Shut up, YESSIR. Nobody wants you to spew your bullshit everywhere. Kendrick’s album sales are legit, neither Dre or Interscope bought anything. Stop making excuses.

    10. Every single record company has fake views. Even independent channels can hustle fake views.

      Lmao at people who really thought Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj could get half a billion views for bullshit pop songs.

    11. why is this not bigger news?! wtf?! now you can literally see with proof who’s trying to be the Jesus to the sheep! how many of you idiots will continue to support things that make money and try to say its some kind of “grind”? NOW do you see what happens when a bunch of heads follow shiny shit? played

    12. Sounds like it worked to me… UMG gained 7 billion Views from the 1 billions fake views. They won regardless. Still a total of 6 billion views. No one is even going to notice, or care for that matter. Who gives a fuck

      1. SERIOUSLY

        SLAP YO’SELF IF U THINK A BIL OF FAKE VIEWS GENERATED THOSE MANY AUTHENTIC ONES

        ISSUE HERE IS CLOWNS LIKE U WILL FALL 4 ANYTHING THAT’S Y THEY DO IT IN THE 1ST PLACE

        U AIN’T CHECKING IT BECAUSE IT’S GOOD U PEEPING BECAUSE IT’S POPULAR LIKE THAT “TRENDING” FCUKBOI SH!T Y’ALL PARTICIPATE IN DAILY

        & U SO SOFT IN UR MENTAL U JUST HEARD THEY FCUKING WITH YO INTELLIGENCE & BASICALLY ROBBING U BLIND

        & U COSIGNING SAYING “Sounds like it worked to me…”

        LMMFBAO

        SMH

        & U IPO’D THAT THOUGHT LIKE THE PEOPLE WERE BUYING IT

        LOL

    13. “Mainstream” music must really be at an “all time low” when you have to perpetrate a fraud just to get people to pay attention to artists. “Mainstream” nowadays is like fast food it doesn’t stick to with you, you just shit it out and move on. It’s sad really, because real artists that are about their craft can’t get exposure but, talentless hacks get exposure because of their “connections”.

    14. i been knew that majority of labels been doing this all your favorite rappers with all that hype behind them they be buying youtube views

    15. Gay? What’s gay is the sheep that don’t even realize that they’re being conned into buying bullshit because it’s popular. Keep following the herd.

    16. What some of you don’t realize is that this is fraud. These companies as well as many individuals get a share of the profits from advertisements in the partnership program. They get paid per view, that’s why you see ads on some of the videos because they chose to monetize the videos. You have a choice when in the program to monetize or not to monetize your uploads to YT. What you make back ranges from $0.07 to I believe $0.13 per view. Now add 1 billion views to those pennies and you get a nice fat knot. YT considers views just like currency so if you break the rules your channel could be deleted, but in this case that would be major fraud on the label’s end and they would open themselves up to major lawsuits and possible criminal investigations.

      1. No, I had a few friends that did the same thing, the views count but they don’t get money from ads, they just get more exposure on youtube, which leads to real views, which leads to money to everyone in the program (uploader, advertisers, youtube…). YT used to allow some people with partnership to get away with it so that they got more views, but they don’t anymore.

      2. What you don’t realize is that there is no way Youtube is paying between 7 and 13 cents per view. Try dividing that figure by 10 and halving it twice – you might be nearer.
        Katy Perry and Taylor swift have had 13 billion views between them which by your reckoning would have cost Youtube between $910 milion and $1.69 billion!?

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