Sony removes a staggering 135,000 deepfake songs from music streaming services, but labelling AI material is absolutely the next critical challenge

Date:
Fri, 20 Mar 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Description:
Sony is battling against the rising threat of AI-generated music on streaming services, and now industry giants want clear AI tagging.

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Sony Music pulls over 135,000 deepfakes impersonating its biggest artists
This includes acts like Beyonc, Harry Styles, and Bad Bunny Now industry giants are calling on music platforms to clearly label AI-generated content The battle between the best music streaming services and AI-generated slop is still an ongoing conflict, and now Sony Music is getting involved its
removed over 135,000 deepfake songs of some of its most famous artists.

According to the music giant, the generative AI deepfakes were created to impersonate a slew of its biggest artists, including Harry Styles, Beyonc,
and Queen, with other artists such as Miley Cyrus and Bad Bunny potentially being affected. This figure was disclosed at the launch of the Global Music Report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) earlier this week. In a statement issued to the BBC , president of Sony's global digital business Dennis Kooker detailed the harm these deepfakes can cause, sharing, "In the worst cases, (the deepfakes) potentially damage a release campaign or tarnish the reputation of an artist. Article continues below You may like Music fans are demanding Spotify flags AI-generated music recommendations Deezer's AI music-detection tool is now available for rival services to use Here are 3 ways to spot AI-generated music in Spotify, and where you can report it Artist reputation aside, fraudulent AI slop causes huge damage to an artists financial gain. Kooker added, "That is when deepfakes are at their worst - building off and benefiting from the demand
the artist has created (and) ultimately detracting from what the artist is trying to accomplish. But the figures also reveal how fast AI slop and fraudulent streams are increasing.

Though Sony has removed the 135,000 AI-identified tracks, its possible this
is only a portion of AI-generated content being uploaded across the likes of Spotify and Apple Music . Apparently, Sony Music flagged around 60,000 songs falsely claiming to be from its pool of artists since March last year, which the company also revealed in the report.

As it stands, music fans are running into AI-generated content on streaming platforms more often than they should be, which can be attributed to the fast development of AI models and their inexpensive accessibility. Weve previously reported on this common issue with Spotify subscribers but its not the only platform where AI slop is building up.

Its got to the point where music industry giants are now actively calling on the leading streaming platforms to identify and flag AI-generated content,
but while there are some measures already in place, its still a bit of a gray area. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Labeling
AI content is the next step (Image credit: Future) In the BBCs report, the company shares a quote from the CEO of the IFPI, Victoria Oakley, who says,
"I hate to say it, but it's very simple to fix, calling for music platforms
to be more transparent with labelling content thats AI-generated. As a music buff, I can say on behalf of listeners everywhere that this is what we want, but even the biggest platforms still havent wrapped their heads around how to efficiently flag AI music.

Deezer was the first streaming giant to roll out its own AI-detection tool, which explicitly labels songs that are 100% AI-generated, excluding them from your playlists but the catch is that Deezer doesnt pull them from the
service altogether.

Recently, Deezer shared its business earnings report, where it revealed that 85% of AI-generated fraudulent streams were demonetized thanks to its proprietary detection technology. Similarly to Spotify, which actively encourages users to report AI slop , Deezer acknowledges that theres a distinction between songs that are 100% AI-generated and songs where only a fraction has been generated using AI for creative purposes, but this opens a dangerous loophole. What to read next Apple Music is launching Transparency Tags to flag AI-generated slop Spotify claims it's not forcing AI-generated music onto listeners. YouTube Music users are furious about AI slop songs and as a recording musician, I'm angry too

Prior to uploading a song to Deezer, if a creator uses AI to generate an entire song but then makes manual production changes and enhancements to it themselves, Deezer will not flag that song as being AI-generated. So, its a bit of a tricky one.

That said, Deezers system could be seen as the more reliable one compared to Apple Music, for example, which is rolling out its own Transparency Tags .
The biggest difference with Transparency Tags is that Apple Music is leaving the responsibility of disclosing AI content to labels and distributors, an option which they can easily reject, while Deezer's system doesn't give you a choice.

So while Deezer's system does raise some slight flaws, it still has a one-up on Apple Music's approach, and also Spotify, which is yet to roll out AI content tags. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/audio/audio-streaming/sony-removes-a-staggering-135- 000-deepfake-songs-from-music-streaming-services-but-labelling-ai-material-is- absolutely-the-next-critical-challenge


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