Photo Credit: Deezer
An astonishing 90,000 “fully AI-generated tracks” – representing north of 50% of new uploads – are pouring onto Deezer each day. Now, the platform has confirmed plans to permanently remove certain machine-generated audio.
Deezer announced the disconcerting slop stats and the corresponding crackdown today. As many know, the DSP’s been identifying and labeling AI tracks for a while; back in January 2025, closer to 10,000 such uploads were hitting the service daily.
By April of the same year, the total had climbed to 20,000 – en route to cracking 30,000 in September, 50,000 in November, 60,000 in January 2026, 75,000 this past April, and nearly 90,000 at present.
(Though the company’s identification tech is evidently effective, higher-ups have acknowledged that it doesn’t flag every single AI-generated track; the actual figures are probably even larger.)
It goes without saying that the rapid “synthetic content” acceleration is troubling enough on its own – especially for non-major-label acts who lack the distinct advantage of contractually guaranteed editorial playlist spots.
Additionally, however, Deezer determined that “up to 85% of the streams generated by fully AI-generated tracks were in fact fraudulent in 2025.” This problematic finding aside, the DSP in its January and April 2026 AI updates expressed the belief that potential steps including “removing/demonetizing content need to be based on careful consideration.”
Three months later, said careful consideration has prompted concrete action: Already in the habit of booting AI uploads from algorithmic recommendations (plus editorial playlists) and demonetizing tracks flagged for fraud, Deezer intends to begin axing the latter from its platform altogether.
“Moving forward, Deezer will systematically take down AI-tracks used for streaming fraud, and those that haven’t been streamed for at least 6 months,” the service revealed today.
Addressing the new policy, Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier emphasized the need for the industry to “align and come together to create shared standards” addressing the AI audio avalanche.
“Deezer has been at the frontline of fighting fraud and reducing payment dilution related to AI music for almost two years,” said Lanternier. “Now that half of all daily uploads are AI-generated tracks, we are taking additional steps to safeguard the rights of artists and songwriters, while maintaining focus on music that fans actually love.
“We have reached a pivotal moment, but we have the technology to keep track of the development, and an ambition to do what’s right. If the industry can align and come together to create shared standards, we can build a healthy and sustainable music ecosystem, where great music wins,” he concluded.
This ecosystem will presumably revolve around the recently proposed tags for AI tracks. Assuming the approach takes off, the stage will perhaps be set for isolating proper music on streaming services – or, put differently, making on-demand platforms look a bit more like they did prior to the AI explosion.
Meanwhile, Tidal has opted to demonetize AI audio across the board, and various countries are inching towards implementing rights-related regulations tailored for the quick-growing sector.
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