Spotify’s policy is that when we detect any artificial streams, those streams do not earn royalties. 

We invest heavily in detecting, preventing, and removing the royalty impact of artificial streams. We want to ensure that artificial streams have no benefit – and do not create any second-order negative impact on legitimate streams.

In some cases with artificially streamed tracks, you may still see streaming spikes in your private Spotify for Artists data, even though associated royalties have been withheld and public metrics (all-time track stream counts and monthly listener count) have been adjusted. In other cases, we can detect and remove confirmed artificial streams before they reach your Spotify for Artists dashboard — which means you may be informed by your distributor of artificial streaming activity even though the streams aren’t visible in your Spotify for Artists. Either way, the royalty report from your label or distributor is the most accurate source of truth for understanding royalties generated from Spotify streams.

You can read more about artificial streaming here.