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Deezer says nearly half of all new music uploaded to its site is AI generated — and it's calling on Spotify and other streaming giants to do more about it

2026-04-20 15:03
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Deezer says nearly half of all new music uploaded to its site is AI generated — and it's calling on Spotify and other streaming giants to do more about it

Deezer will no longer store hi-res versions of AI-generated songs in its continued fight against AI slop.

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Deezer says nearly half of all new music uploaded to its site is AI generated — and it's calling on Spotify and other streaming giants to do more about it News By Rowan Davies published 20 April 2026

Deezer's stripping AI music of hi-res quality, too

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A smartphone showing AI-flagged music in Deezer (Image credit: Future)
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  • Deezer says the number of AI-generated songs on its site is still growing
  • Now, 44% of all uploads have been detected as AI-generated
  • As part of its anti-AI plan, Deezer will longer store hi-res versions of AI tracks

There’s one key feature that separates Deezer from the slew of the other best music streaming services out there, and that’s its transparency on AI-generated music.

The number of AI uploads is only getting bigger, says the French platform, having grown from just over 30% of all uploads in December 2025, to 44% now — and the company wants giants such as Spotify to join in and do something about it.

Deezer is doubling down on its combat against AI slop, and will no longer store hi-res versions of these tracks. In a statement, CEO Alexis Lanternier said, “Thanks to our technology and the proactive measures we put in place more than a year ago, we have shown that it’s possible to reduce AI-related fraud and payment dilution in streaming to a minimum”.

Lanternier then urged rival platforms to take similar measures, adding “Since January, we have made our detection technology available for licensing, and we’re looking forward to seeing industry peers of all kinds join us in the fight for fairness in the age of AI”.

Deezer rolled out its own AI-detection tool in January 2025, aiming to flag music that’s completely AI-generated and increase trust and transparency with subscribers. It even went the distance and made its flagship technology available to its rivals earlier this year.

Stop the slop (can't stop the slop)

To dig down into the numbers a little more, at the end of last year Deezer said that up to 34% of new music uploads were fully AI-generated, tagging over 13.4 million songs in 2025. Now, that number has shot up to a frightening 44%, which equates to roughly 75,000 a day, or more than 2 million AI-generated uploads each month.

Though that’s a rather alarming stat in itself, what’s arguably more worrying is that a large majority of users have stated they can’t distinguish AI-generated music from human-made music, which is a testament to how fast these technologies are evolving.

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One of the driving factors behind the rise of AI-generated uploads is that it's an easy way to mimic other artists and generate profit through fraudulent streams. With the rising number of AI songs in Deezer, the streaming service has also cracked down on demonetization, claiming that up to 85% of streams were detected as fraudulent when it made its AI-detection tools public. We reached out to Deezer who says this percentage is still the same today.

Deezer's AI tagging system is just the beginning of a wider combat against the scourge of AI. While Spotify hasn't vocally clamped down on AI-detection in the way that Deezer or say, Bandcamp has (which lead to a growing migration from the big green streaming machine to hi-res rival Qobuz at the end of last year), Spotify has recently rolled out a new system that allows artists to review and approve what music appears on their profile.

Apple Music is another rival that could be joining the battle against AI-generated music; the company is tipped to roll out Transparency Tags to help identify AI-generated and AI-assisted music — but again, the responsibility lies with labels and distributors to state the use of AI in what you're hearing.

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TOPICS AI Rowan DaviesRowan DaviesSocial Links NavigationEditorial Associate

Rowan is an Editorial Associate and Apprentice Writer for TechRadar. A recent addition to the news team, he is involved in generating stories for topics that spread across TechRadar's categories. His interests in audio tech and knowledge in entertainment culture help bring the latest updates in tech news to our readers. 

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