Deezer Launches AI Music Tags as Fraud Hits 70% of Synthetic Streams
By Trevor Loucks
Founder & Lead Developer, DynamoiTrevor Loucks is the founder and lead developer of Dynamoi, where he leads coverage at the convergence of music business strategy and advertising technology. He focuses on applying the latest ad-tech techniques to artist and record label campaigns so they compound downstream music royalty growth. trevorloucks.com
Deezer deployed the world's first AI music tagging system on June 20, transparently labeling albums containing fully AI-generated tracks as the streaming platform battles an epidemic of synthetic music fraud.
The French streaming service's breakthrough detection technology revealed that 18% of daily uploads—over 20,000 tracks per day—are now completely AI-generated, nearly doubling from 10% in January 2025.
Why it matters:
The move exposes the scale of AI music fraud plaguing the industry and establishes the first major transparency standard for synthetic content across streaming platforms.
Fraud reaches crisis levels: Up to 70% of streams from fully AI-generated tracks are fraudulent, designed purely to siphon royalty payments from legitimate artists.
Industry-wide revenue theft: Streaming manipulation diverts billions annually from the finite royalty pool that should flow to human creators, with 25% of creators' revenues at risk by 2028, potentially worth €4 billion.
Detection breakthrough: Deezer's proprietary system can identify AI content from major generators like Suno and Udio, with two patents filed in December 2024 for signature detection methods.
By the numbers:
- 20,000+ AI tracks uploaded to Deezer daily (18% of all content)
- 70% of AI track streams are fraudulent attempts
- 0.5% actual listening share despite massive upload volume
- €4 billion potential revenue at risk industry-wide by 2028
- $10 million stolen by one fraudster using AI tracks and bots (North Carolina case)
Zoom in:
The fraud playbook exposed
The scheme works by flooding platforms with AI-generated content, then using bot farms to stream tracks just enough times to earn royalties without triggering platform algorithms.
Michael Smith, a North Carolina musician, exemplified this approach—creating hundreds of thousands of AI songs and using bots to generate over 4 billion fraudulent streams, stealing $10 million in royalties meant for legitimate artists.
Platform response strategy
Deezer is excluding AI tracks from algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists while filtering fraudulent streams from royalty calculations.
"We've detected a significant uptick in delivery of AI generated music only in the past few months and we see no sign of it slowing down," said CEO Alexis Lanternier.
What's missing:
Other major platforms haven't implemented similar transparency measures. Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music process the same fraudulent content but don't label it for users.
The industry lacks unified standards for AI detection and transparency across platforms.
The bottom line:
Deezer's tagging system forces the industry to confront AI music fraud openly rather than quietly managing it behind the scenes.
As synthetic music generation accelerates, transparency becomes essential for maintaining trust between platforms, artists, and fans while protecting the economics that fund human creativity.
