Unless these gangs have found a way to make money on Spotify, which isn't available to the average artist then I can't imagine it being particularly effective.

Unless these gangs have found a way to make money on Spotify, which isn't available to the average artist then I can't imagine it being particularly effective. The scheme makes no sense to me, but in society like the Swedish where banks are heavily regulated and monitored and where cash is used less and less it might be one of the last ways of laundering money. Still, they are taking SEK, buying crypto, using the crypto to buy fake stream of "music" they put to Spotify to get a meagerly pay out for played streams. The "loses" on each laundered kronor must be immense.