AI music floods streaming platforms as services scramble to respond

Artificial intelligence is generating music at a scale that is reshaping the streaming industry. French streaming service Deezer reports that 75,000 AI-generated tracks are uploaded to its platform every day, accounting for around 44 percent of all daily uploads. Spotify removed more than 75 million spam tracks in a single year. The surge is driven largely by tools like Suno and Udio, which allow anyone to create a full song from a short text description.

Suno, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has become the dominant player in AI music generation. More than 100 million people have used the platform, and over seven million songs are created on it every day. The company has raised 375 million dollars in funding and is valued at 2.45 billion dollars. Its annualized revenue grew from 100 million dollars in October to 300 million dollars in February of the same fiscal period, according to Forbes. Suno CEO Mikey Shulman argues the technology democratizes music creation by removing the barrier of technical skill.

That argument has not won over the music industry. Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, and the Recording Industry Association of America sued Suno in 2024, alleging it trained its model on millions of copyrighted recordings without permission. Suno has denied the claims. Suno later settled separately with Warner Music Group, which now licenses its recordings for use in Suno’s model in exchange for a share of revenue. Universal Music Group has not settled, with negotiations reportedly stalled over the question of whether AI-generated songs should be allowed on mainstream streaming platforms.

How streaming services are responding

Streaming platforms have taken different approaches to the problem:

• Deezer was the first major platform to detect and label AI-generated content. It has demonetized 85 percent of AI music streams and prevents its algorithm from recommending such content.
• Qobuz has published an AI charter and implemented a detection system, though it has not banned AI content outright.
• Apple Music requires labels and distributors to add transparency tags to AI-generated content, but relies on self-reporting and has declined to explain how it enforces the requirement.
• Spotify has launched voluntary AI credits and a Verified by Spotify badge, which uses signals such as linked social media accounts and concert dates to confirm a human artist is behind a profile. Critics note that the badge proves an artist is human but does not confirm the music itself is human-made.
• Google requires disclosure of AI-generated content on YouTube and YouTube Music and says failure to disclose can result in content removal or suspension from its partner program.
• Bandcamp has banned AI-generated music outright but relies on user reports rather than active scanning to enforce the policy.

Some professional musicians are quietly using tools like Suno to generate demo ideas or replace sampling, though few speak about it publicly. Independent artists like Tennessee-based country musician Tony Justice say the flood of AI content has directly reduced their streaming income. Justice has filed a class action lawsuit against Suno alongside thousands of other artists.

Despite the volume of uploads, actual listening remains low. Deezer reports that AI-generated music accounts for around one percent of total streams. Significantly, 85 percent of those streams were classified as fraudulent in 2025, suggesting that much of the apparent popularity of AI music is artificially inflated. Surveys consistently show that listeners are skeptical. A study by Deezer and Ipsos found that 51 percent of respondents believe AI will lead to more low-quality, generic music. A separate poll by The Hollywood Reporter and the Frost School of Music found that 66 percent of people say they never knowingly listen to AI-generated music.

Sources: The Verge, Forbes, BBC