Photo Credit: Deezer
First, the good news: Machine-made audio still accounts for a small percentage of Deezer’s total streams. As for the bad news, 44% of daily uploads – roughly 75,000 tracks – are now “fully” generated by AI, per the DSP.
Paris-based Deezer provided a fresh update on its AI slop crusade today. As many know, that crusade is made possible by proprietary detection tech. And unlike its competitors, the company is labeling all identified AI uploads accordingly – while cracking down on the works’ rampant streaming fraud.
(This refers in part to demonetizing illicit plays. Though the move might seem a no-brainer, different services have opted for more relaxed policies.)
Back in January, Deezer pointed to north of 60,000 daily AI uploads, attributed “up to 3%” of total on-platform streams to the tracks, and specified that “up to 85% of these streams were fraudulent.”
But as initially mentioned, the daily-upload figure is nearing a disconcerting 75,000 tracks, AI audio is racking up “between 1-3% of the total streams” on the service, and the fraud-detection rate is holding steady at 85%.
Some will recall that the sum is up from 10,000 in January 2025 – for a 650% spike in a year and change. Naturally, the jump raises multiple questions. One of the biggest: When is this runaway train going to stop? When AI garbage soon makes up the majority of uploads?
Another: If we’re able to flag a substantial portion of (but not all) AI uploads, they’re generating relatively few streams, most of those streams are fraudulent, and real artists are facing an AI-powered hacking crisis, is it time for a straight ban on AI audio? Or at least a verification process?
(There’s also the possibility of simply isolating actual art from AI slop, and it’s worth considering how Spotify’s forthcoming AI offerings will factor into the unprecedented situation.)
Technically, Spotify has rolled out an AI-use verification step of sorts, even if it’s optional, and teed up other initiatives under a policy roadmap. “AI credits are optional but Spotify will continue to evolve this approach over time based on feedback and the changing landscape,” a Spotify for Artists entry reads.
Probably not coincidentally, the trend of artificial intelligence “artists” gaining significant commercial traction – a major focus in the not-so-distant past – has seemingly come to a screeching halt.
Longer term, logic suggests that won’t always be the case, and a bona fide AI hit (the definition thereof being a bit subjective) will likely materialize. For now, said hit remains elusive, and the consumption slip associated with allegedly AI-generated tracks is apparent.
In the first place, The Velvet Sundown (not to be confused with Velvet Sundown, no “the”) was previously pumping out releases but looks to have been inactive since a Paper Sun Rebellion follow-up was abruptly yanked from DSPs.
As recorded by DMN Pro, it and other AI artist pages have seen their Spotify monthly listeners decline – to the tune of a plummet from approximately 180,000 listeners for SireWolf in December 2025 to about 55,000 at present, to name one example. And Flaherty Brotherhood suffered a decrease from 78,000 to 20,000 listeners during the same window.
Recalibrated algorithmic recommendations, which were drawing ample user scrutiny just a little while ago, are presumably factoring into the totals. Deezer, for its part, proactively boots AI tracks from recommendations and editorial playlists – and is still leaving the door open to removing the works altogether.
“Potential future actions, including updating our supplier policy and removing/demonetizing content need to be based on careful consideration,” the service wrote in both its January AI update and that which went live today.
