Deezer reveals up to 70% of AI-generated music streams are fraudulent

Deezer, the French music streaming platform, has uncovered significant fraud within its AI-generated music streams. As of April 2025, the company found that AI-produced content, accounting for merely 0.5% of total streams, saw an alarming rate of fraudulent activity, with bots artificially inflating streaming counts. This highlights a growing concern in the music industry regarding the manipulation of AI-generated music for financial gain. Deezer has since taken proactive measures, announcing initiatives to tackle this problem. These include the implementation of an AI detection tool capable of identifying content generated by the most prolific AI models and flagging songs with AI-generated elements. The issue of fraudulent streams is not isolated to Deezer but represents a larger industry-wide challenge as generative AI technology rapidly evolves. Thibault Roucou, Deezer's director of royalties and reporting, explained that these fraudulent activities primarily occur through organized efforts to exploit the system for royalty payments. With AI-generated music rapidly increasing—constituting approximately 18% of new uploads on the platform—Deezer's admission of regret regarding the state of these streams emphasizes the growing sophistication of fraudsters who leverage AI. In an effort to protect legitimate artists and their earnings, Deezer plans to initiate visible indicators for users, labeling albums containing AI-generated songs. The intent behind this move is to maintain transparency and guard against the ongoing malpractice in the music streaming domain. The CEO, Alexis Lanternier, stated that while the technology boasts many advantages, its unregulated use raises questions about originality and authorship in music. Deezer's actions occur alongside broader discussions in the industry about copyright and the legal implications of AI technologies scraping data to create new music without compensating original artists. The landscape is exacerbated by various lawsuits filed against AI service providers over copyright infringement. Michael Smith, a US musician, is among those facing legal consequences for orchestrating a massive scheme of generating and streaming AI music, accumulating significant royalties in the process. Deezer's ongoing commitment to combatting fraud highlights a critical junction for music services as they embrace new technologies while striving to protect the economic rights of musicians.