Guess it depends on the wording (hence the lawsuit). It's an open secret that so many "views" on such platforms are in fact inorganic. That's why the internet been ruined by trackers to try and reassure the poor ad companies can prove humans are looking at ads (i imagine as AI rises this sentiment becomes less relevant).

This is definitely the highest profile case I've seen of this, though.

Maybe if he had formed a shell corporation around his fake listeners, that would have been OK because according to the US Supreme Court, corps are peeps!

He, a person, streamed the songs. I don't know if this person played the song over a speaker or not that he was able to listen to.