French streaming platform Deezer announced on Friday it will now alert users when they encounter music identified as entirely generated by artificial intelligence, a move the company says is a global first.
The announcement by CEO Alexis Lanternier comes amid a surge of AI-generated tracks flooding streaming services—a challenge shared by industry giants like Spotify.
Deezer revealed in January it was receiving about 10,000 AI-generated tracks daily, a figure that doubled to over 20,000 by April, accounting for roughly 18 percent of all new uploads on the platform.
“We want to ensure that royalties intended for human artists aren’t unfairly diverted to AI-generated music created from brief text prompts using tools like Suno or Udio,” Lanternier said.
Rather than removing AI-generated tracks, Deezer has chosen to demonetize them, preventing these songs from reducing the royalty payments owed to human musicians.
Albums containing suspected AI-generated content are now labeled with a clear notice stating “content generated by AI,” a first for any streaming service worldwide.
Deezer’s proprietary detection tool reportedly identifies AI-generated music with 98 percent accuracy.
“An audio signal is an incredibly complex mix of information,” Lanternier explained. “When AI algorithms generate music, they leave subtle audio fingerprints invisible to the human ear but detectable in the signal itself.”
With 9.7 million subscribers—mostly in France—Deezer remains small compared to Spotify’s 268 million users.
Spotify, which signed a major deal with Universal Music Group in January to improve artist remuneration, has not demonetized AI-generated content like Deezer.
The Swedish company cites the absence of a clear legal definition or framework distinguishing fully AI-generated music from human-created works as the reason for its different approach.
