PARIS – Paris-based music streaming service Deezer announced a significant move this week to counter the growing threat of artificial intelligence-driven streaming fraud. The platform will begin implementing a system to identify and label albums containing AI-generated songs, a measure aimed at safeguarding the integrity of royalty payments and protecting the rights of human artists and songwriters.
Understanding the Challenge
The rapid advancement of AI song generators has presented a new challenge to the music industry, particularly within the streaming ecosystem. These tools enable the mass production of tracks, which can then be uploaded to platforms like Deezer with the potential for fraudulent royalty collection. Individuals or automated ‘bots’ can leverage this technology to generate vast catalogs of music, aiming to accumulate small royalty payments from streams across numerous tracks.
Alexis Lanternier, CEO of Deezer, highlighted the disruptive nature of generative AI and the specific problem of its misuse for illicit financial gain. He described AI-generated music enabling fraudulent royalty collection as a significant issue the industry must confront collectively.
Deezer views AI-generated music not merely as a technological curiosity but as an “industry-wide issue” that poses fundamental questions about copyright law, particularly in light of concerns around AI training data scraping from existing musical works. The company’s initiative is designed to bring transparency to the origin of streamed content and help ensure that earned royalties are directed appropriately.
Deezer’s Response and Detection
To address this challenge, Deezer will implement an on-screen label for albums where some tracks have been identified as created using AI song generators. This label will explicitly state “AI-generated content”, providing clear information to users and the industry about the nature of the music.
The platform has developed and rolled out an AI song detection tool earlier this year. Intriguingly, Deezer’s method for detecting AI-generated tracks involves utilizing the same generative AI tools that are used to create the music itself. This approach leverages the characteristics inherent in AI-generated content to identify it.
The Data Landscape
Deezer’s detection tool has revealed the escalating scale of AI content being uploaded to the platform. According to the company, 18% of daily uploaded songs are now fully AI generated. This translates to approximately 20,000 tracks being uploaded daily that are entirely created by artificial intelligence, demonstrating a significant increase from 10% observed just three months prior.
While fully AI-generated music currently accounts for only about 0.5% of total streams on Deezer, the company stated it has noted “evident fraud” related to this content. This suggests that even this small percentage of streams is being manipulated or exploited for fraudulent purposes, underscoring the necessity of preventative measures like tagging.
Broader Industry Context and Legal Challenges
The issue of AI-generated music and its impact on artist rights and royalties is not unique to Deezer and is becoming a focal point for the entire music industry. Legal battles are beginning to emerge.
In a related action illustrating the rising tensions, the German royalty-collection group Gema is pursuing legal action against the AI service Suno. The lawsuit, filed in Munich, alleges that Suno’s AI generates songs that are “confusingly similar” to original works by established artists. Gema specifically cited examples related to the music of artists such as Alphaville, Boney M, and Lou Bega.
Beyond litigation, major record labels are also reportedly engaging directly with generative AI companies like Suno and Udio. These discussions are centered on negotiating compensation for the use of copyrighted material in training data and potentially establishing licensing frameworks for the future use of AI in music creation and distribution.
Conclusion
Deezer’s implementation of AI-generated content tags represents a proactive step by a major streaming service to address the complex challenges posed by artificial intelligence. By introducing transparency and deploying detection tools, the platform aims to protect its ecosystem from fraudulent activity and uphold the principles of fair compensation for human creativity. As AI technology continues to evolve rapidly, the music industry faces an ongoing process of adaptation, requiring collaboration between platforms, artists, legal bodies, and technology developers to define the future landscape of music creation, distribution, and compensation in the digital age.
