About a week ago, I noticed a track from Marshmello pop up in my Spotify feed called “Walking Out.” The track art featured bold, brush-stroked letters in a stark black & white motif, very different from anything Marshmello had done before. I thought that this would maybe be a pretty large departure from his bubbly future bass sound, or maybe something else entirely. As I listened, I couldn’t really put my finger on it, but something didn’t sound right. After following back through the artist page, I realized what it was – it was a fake.
Now, for as long as that paragraph was, this discovery took a relatively much shorter time. However, it seems that many others are finding it more difficult to discern, as today the track has started making its rounds on social media.
fake
not fake
It isn’t just Spotify, though. The track is also up on iTunes under Marshmello’s name, and it’s been there since March! This phenomenon recently happened with a fake Skrillex track, as well, and I was told that “anyone can seemingly upload fake tracks and tag an artist in the credits” without much oversight.
Someone is trying really hard to ride on Marshmello’s coattails. The actual producer of the real song was even confused by all this, assuming at first that Marshmello had stolen his track – this, of course, couldn’t have been further from the truth – but later coming to the same conclusion we did.
So if not the original producer of the track, and not Marshmello, who would stand to gain from this track blowing up? Honestly, we have no freaking clue. Below is the real producer behind the track, show him some love.
Featured image via Ryan Hadji