Fake TikTok fans and the history of 'unethical' music marketing
Key takeaways
- Do indie darlings like Sombr and Geese owe their success to Tik Tok "trend simulations"?
- Fans presume their favorite bands achieved their success through their great music and hard work alone.
- The uproar began with an interview in Billboard magazine with Andrew Spelman and Jesse Coren — heads of American marketing company Chaotic Good Projects, which represents Geese and Sombr.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Do indie darlings like Sombr and Geese owe their success to Tik Tok "trend simulations"? The question has sent shockwaves through their fan base. Yet manipulated charts are as old as the music business itself.
https://p.dw.com/p/5DT2JGeese performing at the Coachella Festival in April 2026Image: Amy Harris/Invision/AP Photo/picture alliance Advertisement There's a special name for music that's not produced by the big labels and that can't be easily squeezed into a genre: "indie." Indie bands have an image of being authentic and non-commercial. Fans presume their favorite bands achieved their success through their great music and hard work alone. That's why many were shocked to find out that the hype surrounding indie bands like Geese, as well as singer-songwriters like Sombr, Jane Remover and Mk.gee turned out to have been fabricated — at least in part — by social media manipulation.
The uproar began with an interview in Billboard magazine with Andrew Spelman and Jesse Coren — heads of American marketing company Chaotic Good Projects, which represents Geese and Sombr.