This is what a music industry 'plant' looks like in 2026

At a glance:

• Geese, a Brooklyn-based band, received mainstream attention including SNL and Coachella appearances
• Chaotic Good Projects confirmed creating artificial TikTok campaigns for musicians, including Geese
• Fake user-generated content has become widespread across music and other industries

The Geese Phenomenon

If you're into rock music, chances are you've heard of the band Geese. The Brooklyn-based ensemble has been steadily building a reputation for critical acclaim and mainstream attention, with regular comparisons to legendary bands like The Strokes. However, their trajectory took a meteoric turn over the past year, catapulting them into the spotlight in ways that would make any indie band envious. The band's fourth studio album, "Getting Killed," dropped in late September 2025 and was subsequently named the best album of the year by The New Yorker in December. Their momentum continued into 2026 with a musical guest debut on Saturday Night Live in January and a performance at the highly coveted Coachella festival just this past weekend.

Despite these impressive achievements, a cloud of controversy has begun to form around the band's seemingly organic rise to fame. A viral Substack article followed by an in-depth WIRED report has cast doubt on the authenticity of Geese's social media buzz, suggesting that their online presence may not be entirely grassroots. This revelation has reignited discussions within the music industry and among fans about what constitutes genuine popularity versus artificially manufactured hype. The timing of these revelations couldn't be more significant, coming at a moment when the band was enjoying its greatest commercial success and critical recognition to date.

Behind the Scenes: Chaotic Good Projects

At the heart of this controversy sits Chaotic Good Projects, a relatively new boutique digital marketing agency that specializes in creating user-generated content (UGC) and other marketing campaigns for musicians. The agency's approach has come under intense scrutiny following the revelations about their work with Geese, with their co-founders providing candid insights into their methodologies in recent interviews. "We are kind of studying the internet and TikTok and seeing what's working organically and trying to recreate it at scale inorganically," Andrew Spelman, one of the agency's co-founders, explained to Billboard last month. This statement encapsulates their core strategy of analyzing trending content and then artificially replicating it to create the illusion of organic popularity.

The agency's tactics are more sophisticated than simple paid promotions. According to Spelman, "TikTok is entirely based around trending audios... a big part of what we are doing is posting enough volume across enough accounts with enough impressions to try to simulate the idea that the song is trending or moving or whatever you want to call it." The scale of their operation is substantial, with co-founder Jesse Coren revealing that the accounts are managed by "a large network of both employees and contractors." This human-powered approach allows them to create the appearance of genuine fan engagement across numerous platforms. The physical evidence of their operation is equally telling, as Spelman noted, "Our office is overrun with iPhones," hinting at the extensive mobile infrastructure required to manage their campaigns. Perhaps most damningly, another co-founder, Adam Tarsia, confirmed directly to WIRED on Tuesday that they had indeed engineered a specific campaign for Geese on TikTok, effectively admitting to the practices that had sparked the controversy.

A Roster of Stars

While Geese has become the focal point of this particular controversy, it's crucial to understand that they are far from the only artists benefiting from Chaotic Good's services. The agency has worked with a diverse roster of musicians across various stages of their careers, from emerging talents to established superstars. Among their clients are artists like Alex Warren, Zara Larsson, and Sombr, all of whom have experienced significant breakthroughs in global popularity recently. The agency's client list also includes already household names such as Tame Impala, Coldplay, Justin Bieber, and Dua Lipa, suggesting that these artificial amplification tactics are not just reserved for breaking artists but are employed throughout the industry.

The reason Geese has faced disproportionate backlash compared to these other artists lies in their specific circumstances. The band was already the subject of "industry plant" rumors even before these revelations came to light. Their sudden and seemingly accelerated rise to prominence had already sparked speculation among online critics that their internet buzz might not be entirely organic, potentially driven by industry backers like record labels or marketing agencies. This pre-existing skepticism made them an easy target when the truth about Chaotic Good's involvement emerged. In contrast, artists like Justin Bieber and Dua Lipa have built their careers over many years, making any recent artificial promotion less noticeable or concerning to their established fanbases. The Geese situation thus serves as a case study in how pre-existing narratives can shape the reception of industry practices that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Industry-Wide Practices

It would be misleading to single out Chaotic Good Projects as the sole perpetrator of these artificial fan-creation tactics. In reality, these social media strategies have become commonplace throughout the music industry, which has faced numerous controversies over arguably dishonest practices in the past year. The landscape is rife with examples of questionable methods employed by various players in the ecosystem. For instance, Spotify became the target of a class action lawsuit late last year, accused of "deceptive business practices" related to its Discovery Mode feature. This feature provides personalized recommendations to users based on their music taste but simultaneously allows artists to pay for enhanced placement, effectively creating a pay-to-play system that undermines the platform's supposed algorithmic neutrality.

Similarly, Drake faced legal action in January when he was accused of using bots to artificially inflate his streaming numbers. These cases demonstrate that the issue extends beyond just UGC creation to include manipulation of platform algorithms and metrics across the board. Labels and marketing agencies of all sizes employ UGC strategies to generate buzz and create the illusion of a dedicated fanbase for their clients, with the hope that genuine popularity will follow in the wake of this manufactured attention. These teams often maintain networks of fake fan accounts that "leak" new music, create fan edits of trending movies and TV shows set to their clients' songs, or compensate influencers with substantial followings to feature the songs in their videos or advertisements. The pervasiveness of these tactics suggests they are not just isolated incidents but rather systemic practices that have become deeply embedded in the modern music promotion ecosystem.

The Algorithm Game

The widespread adoption of artificial fan-creation tactics speaks volumes about the immense power that platforms like TikTok hold in our contemporary society. These platforms' algorithms have become the gatekeepers of cultural relevance, determining which artists gain visibility and which remain obscure. The fact that marketing agencies like Chaotic Good have developed sophisticated methods to manipulate these algorithms highlights how much influence the people who understand and can exploit social media mechanics can wield. When Spelman describes their strategy as "posting enough volume across enough accounts with enough impressions to try to simulate the idea that the song is trending," he's essentially admitting to gaming the very systems designed to surface genuinely popular content.

This dynamic creates a paradox where the platforms that were meant to democratize content discovery have instead become new arenas for concentrated influence and artificial manipulation. The algorithms, while designed to reflect authentic user engagement, can be tricked by coordinated campaigns that simulate the patterns of organic popularity. As a result, the line between genuine cultural momentum and manufactured hype has become increasingly blurred, making it more difficult for both fans and industry professionals to discern what is truly resonating with audiences versus what is being artificially amplified. This situation not only distorts the cultural landscape but also creates an uneven playing field where artists with substantial marketing resources can gain advantages that have little to do with the actual quality or appeal of their music.

Beyond Music: The Spread of Inorganic Buzz

While UGC campaigns have become particularly prominent in the music industry, these tactics are rapidly spreading to other sectors as well. The methods that music marketers have perfected are being adapted and deployed in increasingly diverse contexts, demonstrating the broad applicability of artificial amplification strategies. One notable example has been the 2024 presidential election, where campaigns employed UGC strategies similar to those used in music to shape public perception and engagement. Political operatives recognized the power of creating the appearance of grassroots support and have since incorporated these approaches into their digital arsenals, often using coordinated networks of accounts to amplify specific messages or create the illusion of widespread consensus.

The migration of these tactics from music to politics underscores a concerning trend toward the artificial construction of public opinion across various domains. When political campaigns use fake accounts to create the appearance of widespread support for a candidate or position, they're essentially applying the same principles that music marketers use to create artificial fanbases. This cross-pollination of strategies suggests we're entering an era where the distinction between authentic public sentiment and manufactured consensus becomes increasingly difficult to discern. As these techniques continue to evolve and spread, they threaten to undermine genuine discourse and democratic processes by creating echo chambers of artificially amplified opinions that masquerade as organic public sentiment.

The AI Factor

As if the current landscape of artificial fan creation weren't complex enough, 2026 is poised to bring a new dimension to this phenomenon: the widespread integration of AI-generated content. The coming year is expected to see an explosion of AI tools that can create convincing social media posts, comments, and even entire accounts at unprecedented scale and speed. This technological advancement threatens to make the fanbases of even the most niche artists appear less organic than ever before, potentially rendering current UGC tactics obsolete while simultaneously creating new, more sophisticated methods for artificial amplification. The combination of human-run networks and AI-generated content could create a perfect storm of inauthentic engagement that becomes virtually indistinguishable from genuine fan activity.

The implications of this AI-driven shift are profound and far-reaching. If AI can convincingly simulate human interaction and engagement on social media platforms, the very concept of "authentic" popularity becomes increasingly problematic. Artists and their marketing teams will face new ethical dilemmas about where to draw the line between legitimate promotion and deceptive manipulation. Meanwhile, platforms will struggle to develop detection methods that can keep pace with the rapidly evolving capabilities of AI content generation. In this environment, the music industry—and indeed all industries reliant on social media engagement—will need to reconsider how they measure success and what constitutes genuine cultural impact. As one industry insider might put it, the question is no longer whether your favorite artist has real fans, but rather how many of their followers are actually human.