This is a playlist I found for the album "Day 2". Notice the video "More"?
The "More" video is indeed more: more cryptocurrency spam that YouTube would be better off without. Not at all music related.
But this video has been found on a plethora of music-related playlists.
The playlists all follow the same formula. They have the recognizable artist's name and album name, followed by an indicator that "this is the full album" because people will search YouTube for the full albums.
Notice how the descriptions for the playlist of Sybyr's album matches the formula that was used with my album?
Another example with a Master Boot Record album. The description didn't say "Thanks for tuning into my " but the rest was the same. A playlist for "Personal Computers" did not have the tracklist pasted into the description for search keyword stuffing purposes, but the rest was the same there too.
And once again it is that "More" video with the keys thumbnail.
The channel which uploaded that video, "Hangmeas", has two other videos from 18 years ago, making it both one of the oldest accounts on YouTube, and presumably long abandoned by its owner for any number of reasons. The channel which made the Day 2 playlist is also an 18 year old channel that was abandoned by its owner as well.
With that in mind: it is safe to assume both of those, as likely with most of the other spam accounts, were cracked and their actual owners either have no idea or are unable to do anything about it for any reason.
Now for @TeamYouTube's part: is there something that can easily be done about this apart from perhaps setting limits on new and long-time inactive accounts? I have a poll going with that question to see what the few people that come across it think.
https://x.com/antonsjm/status/1913818250002956732
If anyone has any ideas on what can deal with the spam, feel free to comment your ideas.