The popular music streaming platform Deezer is grappling with an unprecedented surge of artificial intelligence-generated music, with over 20,000 fully AI-created tracks now flooding its servers daily as of April 2025. This figure represents approximately 18% of all new content uploaded to the platform, a dramatic increase from January when AI-generated music constituted roughly 10% of daily uploads. The doubling of AI tracks in just four months has raised serious concerns about the future landscape of digital music streaming.
In response to this deluge, Deezer launched a specialized AI detection tool in January 2025, designed to identify music created by popular generative models like Suno and Udio. The company filed patent applications for this technology in December 2024, allowing them to not only recognize known AI models but also generalize detection capabilities to other systems. This tool actively prevents fully AI-generated songs from appearing in algorithmic recommendations presented to Deezer’s 9.7 million subscribers.
Industry experts have sounded alarms about the potential economic impact of unchecked AI music proliferation. The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) warns that generative AI flooding streams could “cannibalize” up to 24% of music creators’ revenues by 2028. Major record labels have already initiated lawsuits against AI companies like Suno and Udio for allegedly training their models on copyrighted material without proper authorization. Prominent artists including Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj have publicly voiced their concerns about AI’s potential negative impact on musical creativity and artistic expression. For human musicians, this development threatens crucial sync licensing revenue that many rely on to supplement their income from streaming platforms. Without proper registration with collecting societies, many artists may lose out on royalties they’re entitled to from these AI-generated works.
Deezer has positioned itself as an industry leader in addressing these challenges, becoming the only streaming platform to sign a global statement on AI training ethics and copyright protection. Their approach combines detection technology with ethical commitments to creators, establishing a new standard for transparency in AI-generated content. Aurelien Herault, Chief Innovation Officer at Deezer, has emphasized the need for responsible AI development while protecting artists’ rights in this rapidly evolving landscape.
As AI music generation technology continues to evolve, Deezer’s proactive stance may provide a blueprint for the industry’s response to questions of artistic authenticity, fair compensation, and the future relationship between human creativity and artificial intelligence in music creation and distribution.
