- 34% of new music on Deezer is AI-generated
- 97% of listeners can’t tell the difference between AI music and human-made tracks
- Where does it end and what needs to be implemented to stop the slide?
If you’ve been listening to new music recently and thought it sounded a little soulless, there’s a good chance you didn’t imagine it.
According to new data from streaming service Deezer, 34% of all new music uploaded to the platform is now fully AI-generated. That’s over 50,000 AI-made tracks uploaded every single day.
If you thought that was bad, what’s more disturbing is that almost no one can spot it – Deezer also commissioned a study showing that 97% of people “can’t tell the difference” between artificial intelligence and human-made music.
A stream of AI music
Deezer’s research was conducted by blind tests across eight countries, where people were largely unable to identify which tracks were AI-generated, even when actively trying to do so.
This flow of synthetic songs is fueled by how easy AI music tools have become to use. You no longer need a band, a studio or even much musical knowledge. With an AI app like Suno, a prompt and a few clicks, you can now produce tracks good enough to pass as human work, at least to most people’s ears.
While AI music is everywhere in terms of uploads, it still barely registers when it comes to actual listening. Deezer says fully AI-generated tracks account for around 0.5% of total streams, suggesting listeners still gravitate towards music made by real artists, even if they can’t always tell why.
Where does this stop?
This gap between volume and popularity has not stopped concern from spreading across the industry. In the same survey, around 80% of people said that AI-generated music should be clearly labeled on streaming platforms. Many also worried about the impact on artists’ livelihoods, especially when it comes to AI models being trained on copyrighted music without consent.
The Verge spoke to several musicians, all of whom expressed their fear of AI slop taking over the industry, with some calling the situation “Completely unacceptable.”
There is also a growing feeling that AI tracks should not be treated the same as human ones financially, with respondents saying payouts should be lower for fully synthetic music.
For its part, Deezer says it is already rolling out tools to detect and tag AI-generated tracks while filtering out fraudulent streaming activity linked to mass-produced songs. It’s an early attempt to prevent platforms from being overwhelmed by content that’s cheap to produce but hard to monitor.
Yet the larger question remains unresolved. If most people can’t hear the difference, does it matter who or what made the music?
For now, the industry is moving towards a future where AI music is no longer a novelty or a gimmick. It’s just part of the background noise. And chances are you’ve already listened to it without realizing it.
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