Something I published has WAY more downloads than view/listen counts

[Syzion]

Somebody just recently brought this certain detail to my attention regarding this old piece of music I made. This song has a little over 2,000 listens, yet it has over 17,000 downloads.

I'm not sure when this happened, I even tried to use the Wayback Machine to check, but it did not give me any useful clues, only that it at least did not occur before 27/5/2022, which only leaves the fact that it happened between from after that time ago up until today, 14/5/2024.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220527162907/https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/601983

I'm also not sure if this topic is applicable in this area, but I am concerned, I simply want an explanation or an investigation to this anomaly, if at all possible, in case might have been something suspicious or malicious.

[Madmazel]

At 5/14/24 01:09 PM, Syzion wrote: Somebody just recently brought this certain detail to my attention regarding this old piece of music I made. This song has a little over 2,000 listens, yet it has over 17,000 downloads.
https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/601983
I'm not sure when this happened, I even tried to use the Wayback Machine to check, but it did not give me any useful clues, only that it at least did not occur before 27/5/2022, which only leaves the fact that it happened between from after that time ago up until today, 14/5/2024.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220527162907/https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/601983
I'm also not sure if this topic is applicable in this area, but I am concerned, I simply want an explanation or an investigation to this anomaly, if at all possible, in case might have been something suspicious or malicious.

That's fine to ask here! It's because of a game called Geometry Dash, which allows people to use music straight from Newgrounds. If your song got used in a popular level it can rack up a lot of downloads without increasing the listen count on Newgrounds itself. It's mentioned in the FAQ (in a little more detail) here.

[Syzion]

At 5/14/24 01:52 PM, Madmazel wrote:

At 5/14/24 01:09 PM, Syzion wrote: Somebody just recently brought this certain detail to my attention regarding this old piece of music I made. This song has a little over 2,000 listens, yet it has over 17,000 downloads.
https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/601983
I'm not sure when this happened, I even tried to use the Wayback Machine to check, but it did not give me any useful clues, only that it at least did not occur before 27/5/2022, which only leaves the fact that it happened between from after that time ago up until today, 14/5/2024.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220527162907/https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/601983
I'm also not sure if this topic is applicable in this area, but I am concerned, I simply want an explanation or an investigation to this anomaly, if at all possible, in case might have been something suspicious or malicious.

That's fine to ask here! It's because of a game called Geometry Dash, which allows people to use music straight from Newgrounds. If your song got used in a popular level it can rack up a lot of downloads without increasing the listen count on Newgrounds itself. It's mentioned in the FAQ (in a little more detail) here.

That's interesting, I never noticed anyone using it then. If that's the case, nobody discussed with me on using it, which is part of the conditions I set on how my music could be used.