Entity-Specific Bot Detection

Entity Type	Key Detection Fields
Playlists	`qualityScore`, `qualityData`
Tracks/Artists	`playlistSummary`
All Entities	`bot-status` endpoint

Playlist-Level Detection

`qualityScore` (integer)

A score from -1000 to 1000 representing the playlist's estimated quality.

Score Range	Meaning
`900–1000`	Human-reviewed and confirmed as authentic.
`1–899`	No signs of botting, playlist appears active.
`0`	Insufficient data.
`-1 to -49`	No signs of botting, but low engagement or inactivity.
`-50 to -899`	Potentially botted (algorithmic flags, no manual review).
`-900 to -1000`	Confirmed botted or linked to known botted networks.

`qualityData` (object)

Returned for playlists only. This object contains:

botted: true if qualityScore <= -50
fraudData: Dates with fraud indicators (e.g. spikes, dips)
fraudDates: Raw list of suspicious dates (deprecated)
ignoreDates: Dates ignored due to known anomalies (e.g. mass Spotify bot purges) (deprecated)
indicators: Tags like unusual_growth, fake_follower_ratio
override: Manual admin-reviewed object with fields like:
- rating: "Good", "Okay", or "Bad"
- notes, listeners, date

Track/Artist-Level Detection

`playlistSummary` (object)

Summarizes a track or artist's exposure to playlists, including potential bot placements:

playlistSummary: {
  total: number;              // Total number of playlists the entity is in
  followerReach: number;      // Combined followers across those playlists
  fraud: number;              // Count of botted playlists
  fraudSpotifyIds: string[];  // Spotify playlist IDs flagged as botted
}

Use this to quickly evaluate the overall risk associated with playlist placements.

All Entities: `bot-status` Endpoint

The /v2/misc/bot-status endpoint returns a lightweight verdict for any Spotify entity (playlist, track, artist, curator). It returns:

{
  "botted": true,
  "metadata": {
    "bottedPlaylistIds": ["1a2b3c...", "4d5e6f..."],
    "bottedPlaylistCount": 2,
    "indicators": { ... },         // For playlists
    "fraudHistory": { ... },       // For playlists
    "adminOverride": { ... }       // For playlists
  }
}

Response Fields

botted: true or false — whether the entity is currently flagged
metadata: Contextual info:
- bottedPlaylistIds: Only for artists/tracks/curators
- bottedPlaylistCount: Numeric summary
- indicators, fraudHistory, adminOverride: Only for playlists

Best Practices

Filter out playlists with qualityScore <= -50 for safety.
Use playlistSummary.fraud to assess overall placement health for a track or artist.
Use the bot-status endpoint for quick checks or UI gating.
Human-reviewed overrides (qualityData.override or adminOverride) should always take precedence.

If you need clarification or support integrating this data into your system, reach out to aaron@artist.tools.

Limitations

While artist.tools provides powerful bot detection, there are important limitations to be aware of:

Not All-Encompassing: Our detection systems are robust, but not exhaustive. Suspicious behavior may go undetected.
Limited Data on New Playlists: If we've just ingested a playlist, we may not have enough data to provide an assessment. This is common. Allow up to 7 days for full evaluation.
Use as a Signal, Not a Verdict: We do not recommend using our detection as your only line of defense. Always compare our findings with your own data sources.
No Access to Internal DSP Data: We rely solely on publicly available data. Platforms like Spotify may have internal signals (e.g. user-level stream behavior) that we cannot observe or factor into our analysis.
Deeper Insight Available: For those doing deeper audits, the snapshots[] array (enabled via the includeSnapshots API option) allows you to inspect timeline-level playlist growth and make your own assessments.