AI is flooding music streaming services – but who wants it?

it is stepbackA weekly newsletter that presents an essential story from the tech world. Follow Terrence O’Brien for more on how AI is changing music and the music industry. stepback Delivers to our subscribers’ inboxes at 8am ET. opt in for stepback Here.

The use of generic AI in pop music started almost as a gimmick. There was a spirit of experimentalism in 2018 i am ai By Taryn Southern and 2019 proto By Holly Herndon, albums that were created with significant assistance from AI. Others also got in on the action, exploring the outer limits of tools like Google’s Magenta and even training their own models. But things changed rapidly with the launch of Suno in December of 2023 and Udio in April of 2024.

Listen and Udio allow users to quickly create entire compositions with a simple text prompt. AI-generated music was no longer the domain of tech experts and frontier experimenters, it was now accessible to anyone with an internet connection. This led to a flood of machine-made music on streaming platforms.

In September of 2025, Deezer said that 28 percent of music uploaded was completely AI-generated. By the end of the year, this had increased to much 50,000 Tracks per day, accounting for 34 percent of uploads. Both users and artists have expressed frustration, and demanded that streaming platforms do something to tackle the growing problem that is plaguing playlists and siphoning. royalty worth millions Away from legitimate artists. Udio did not respond to a request for comment.

Things have gotten even worse at Deezer, where daily uploads of AI-generated content have reached 75,000, and are in danger of being overtaken by actual human-created music. And Spotify removed over 75 million spam tracks in just 12 months.

Deezer was the first major streaming platform to implement such a system detects and labels AI-generated content. The service also stops its algorithms from recommending it and has monetized 85 percent of streams. recently Press releaseAlexis Lanternier, CEO of Deezer, said, “AI-generated music is now far from a marginal phenomenon and as daily deliveries continue to grow, we hope the entire music ecosystem will join us in taking action to help protect artists’ rights and promote transparency for fans.”

Qobuz was the next to implement an identification system. It also published a AI CharterPromising that it will never use AI for its editorial or curation content. Although the company stopped short of banning AI-generated content, it expressed dissatisfaction, saying, “The heart of Qobuz is and will remain human.”

Apple soon followed. However its labeling system has one glaring flaw – it relies on self-reporting. Apple Music is “requiring” labels and creators to voluntarily add transparency tags to their metadata. When asked how it was enforcing the requirements, or what penalties, if any, there would be for failing to label AI-generated content, Apple declined to comment and referred me to an industry leader. Newsletter Since the beginning of March it has said that it is “up to content providers to determine what qualifies as AI content.”

Spotify also opted for a voluntary system. It recently launched AI Credits, which recognizes tracks created using generative AI. It is working with standards group DDEX Creating an industry standard for labeling AI content. This goes beyond blanket labeling, allowing artists to specify whether AI was used to create lyrics, vocals or backing music. Early glimpses of those efforts began emerging in mid-April, with DistroKid as its first partner.

While DDEX counts most of the industry’s giants as members — including Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple, SongTrader (home of Bandcamp), Pandora, BMI, UMG, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group — not everyone is necessarily on board with Spotify’s standard yet.

Spotify has come under criticism for its handling of AI slop and so-called ghost artist. But recently, it has happened went out of your way To talk about its transparency efforts and its increasing aggression against spam and impersonation. The company also recently launched the Spotify Verified badge that guarantees that there is a human being behind the artist profile. Sam Duboff, Global Head of Marketing and Policy at Spotify for Artists, explains The Verge It is experimenting with third-party detection tools, but they still make “a material amount of miscalculation”.

Google also requires that AI-generated content be labeled, whether it’s on YouTube or YouTube Music. Although the company will not publicly disclose how its systems will Combat AI Slope The work, it said, is “building on established systems that have been very successful in combating spam and clickbait and reducing the spread of low-quality, repetitive content.” It also says that non-disclosure may result in loss. penaltyWhich includes removal or suspension of content from the YouTube Partner Program.

In survey after survey, public opinion towards AI music is quite unfavorable. A study by Deezer and Ipsos showed that 51 percent of respondents think AI will lead to “the creation of more low-quality, generic-sounding music.”

A voting Powered by hollywood reporter And the Frost School of Music found that 66 percent of people never intentionally listen to AI-generated music. And 52 percent said they wouldn’t even want to listen to their favorite artist’s music if they knew it was created with the help of AI.

Singapore researchers also found important negative bias Towards AI-generated content. The paper’s authors claim this is because emotion plays a central role in how we engage with music. They state that “due to a lack of expressive intent, AI-generated music may be considered less capable of conveying authentic emotion or fostering a meaningful connection with listeners.”

Despite this, only Bandcamp has Generic AI music banned Lump sum. Sure, it says “music and audio generated in whole or in large part by AI is not allowed,” but enforcing that policy is easier said than done. Bandcamp AI is not actively scanning uploads to catch music. Instead it relies on manual reports from users to flag suspicious content.

The flood of AI music shows no signs of slowing down. The number of AI tracks uploaded has grown steadily over the past year, and according to Manuel Moussallam, Deezer’s research director, “it is likely that deliveries will continue to grow.”

If there is a silver lining, it is that the number of generative AI uploads has increased by about 40 percent, but there has been no significant increase in streams. “After removing fraud, consumption is not picking up much and is still focused on a few viral tracks,” says Moussallam.

Music accounts generated by AI are very low 1 percent Number of streams on Deezer as of April, up from approx. 0.5 percent In early November. but the percentage of time Fraud AI music streams have increased dramatically from “by 70 percent” to 85 percent. This suggests that people are looking for AI music less – perhaps the novelty has worn off.

YouTube Policy Communications Manager Jack Malone explained The Verge The company is “engaged in the active development of new industry standards for AI disclosure in music credits”, though it stopped short of saying whether it was specifically collaborating with Apple or Spotify. Google was heavily involved in the creation of C2PA to authenticate content, but has been criticized for inconsistent implementation, potential for abuseAnd creating a false sense of security.

It appears that neither Google nor Spotify are ready to start monetizing or excluding AI-generated music from their recommendation engines. Duboff says that, “Over time, we believe the use of AI in music will increasingly be a spectrum, not binary. Tracks will be ‘clearly AI’ or ‘not AI at all’ and there will be no in between.”

Compositions like Velvet Sundown, Breaking Rust and Solomon Ray may be anomalies at the end of the day. They have drawn more attention towards AI than the quality of the music. Fully generative AI music will continue to be a threat to working musicians, session artists, library music composers, and the like. But they may have to struggle to gain a foothold on the charts.

However, artists are adopting AI more often, even if it’s largely behind the scenes. Diplo says it worked its way into songwriting sessions in Nashville and took over sampling for hip-hop producers Creators need to adapt. (Or “It’s like giving up and becoming an Uber driver until everyone has Waymo.”) “We hear all the time from top artists, songwriters, and producers who are incorporating AI technology into their creative processes,” says Duboff.

Companies are hesitant to penalize the use of AI partly because they expect it to become a standard tool in the industry. Even when launching its Verified by Spotify program, the company kept the door open to AI acts, saying, “The concept of artist authenticity is complex and rapidly evolving.”

But when Suno users are churning The entire Spotify AI slope Demand for dramatic steps is likely to increase every two weeks. The Deezer/Ipsos study found that 45 percent of people would like to filter out all AI-generated music from their music streaming library. This is a solution that neither Deezer nor any other streaming service is committed to. And it will face difficult hurdles of its own, including an industry-wide standard for labeling that is consistently enforced, and robust, reliable AI detection tools.

If someone wants to listen to Zanya Monet, no one should stand in his way. If you could flip a switch and instantly hide all generative AI music on Spotify, I’m sure a lot of people would do that.