Music War: Deezer Unleashes AI Detector Against Spotify & Apple Music

The proliferation of AI-generated music on streaming services has ignited significant concerns within the music industry. Key issues revolve around how artificial intelligence companies utilize copyrighted material for training their models and the potential for manipulation within streaming systems, which could facilitate fraud. Despite these growing anxieties, many major music streaming services have yet to implement effective AI music detection tools, leaving a void that Deezer has now actively sought to fill.

Taking a proactive stance, the music streamer Deezer has introduced a new, free online tool specifically designed to scan playlists across various streaming platforms to identify AI-generated tracks. Announced on a Thursday, this innovative AI music detector boasts support for 27 languages and is compatible with playlists from 20 of the most popular platforms, enabling users to ascertain if their curated collections include synthetic music.

This initiative solidifies Deezer's position as one of the music industry's most vocal and aggressive opponents of AI music. While competitors such as Apple Music and Spotify have adopted a strategy of tagging AI content, Deezer goes further by actively removing AI tracks from its recommendations and excluding them from editorial playlists. Demonstrating its commitment to combating this issue, Deezer recently began offering its advanced AI detection technology to rival platforms, advocating for industry-wide collaboration.

Utilizing the new tool is straightforward: users navigate to Deezer’s AI music detector website, select their streaming service (compatible with platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, and YouTube Music), and grant Deezer access to their playlists. Once imported, the service meticulously scans for AI-generated content, notifies users of any findings, and even provides the option to share the results, promoting transparency.

Alexis Lanternier, CEO of Deezer, emphasized the company's pioneering role, stating, “By detecting and tagging AI-generated music over the past year and a half, Deezer has been at the forefront of transparency in music streaming. No other company has followed our lead yet, so we decided to make it possible for everyone to check if their playlists include synthetic music, no matter which streaming platform they use.”

Further underscoring its commitment, Deezer revealed it is carefully deliberating future measures, including updates to supplier policies and potential content removal, mirroring steps taken by platforms like Bandcamp, which banned AI music earlier this year. This significant launch follows Deezer’s disclosure that a staggering 44% of all new music uploaded to its platform is AI-generated, with the company facing an influx of nearly 75,000 such tracks daily, totaling over two million each month. Despite this immense volume, the listening rate for AI-generated music remains low, accounting for only 1-3% of total streams. Crucially, approximately 85% of these streams are flagged as fraudulent and subsequently demonetized by the platform, highlighting the urgent need for such detection tools.