- 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 slop?
If you’ve listened to new music recently and thought it sounds a bit soulless, there’s a decent chance you weren’t imagining 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 being uploaded every single day.
If you thought that was bad, what’s more unsettling is that almost nobody can spot it – Deezer also commissioned a study that shows 97% of people “can’t tell the difference” between AI and human-made music.
A flood of AI music
Deezer’s research was conducted by blind tests across eight countries, where people overwhelmingly failed to identify which tracks were AI-generated, even when actively trying to do so.
That flood of synthetic songs is being driven 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 that are good enough to pass as human work, at least to most 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?
That gap between volume and popularity hasn’t stopped concern from spreading across the industry. In the same study, around 80% of people said AI-generated music should be clearly labelled on streaming platforms. Many also worried about the impact on artists’ livelihoods, particularly when it comes to AI models being trained on copyrighted music without consent.
The Verge spoke with multiple musicians, who all highlighted their fear of AI slop taking over the industry, with some calling the situation “Completely unacceptable.”
There’s also a growing feeling that AI tracks shouldn’t be treated the same as human ones financially, with respondents saying payouts should be lower for fully-synthetic music.
Deezer, for its part, says it’s 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 difficult to police.
Still, the bigger question remains unresolved. If most people can’t hear the difference, does it even matter who or what made the music?
For now, the industry is hurtling toward 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 been listening to it without realizing.
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john-anthony.disotto@futurenet.com (John-Anthony Disotto)
