French streaming platform Deezer has rolled out a new feature that flags fully AI-generated music, becoming the first streaming service globally to do so. The move comes as part of Deezer’s wider effort to ensure human artists are not deprived of rightful earnings due to the rise of machine-created tracks.

Speaking to AFP, Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier confirmed the update, stating that users will now see a label reading “content generated by AI” on albums and tracks suspected to have been produced by artificial intelligence.

While the flagged songs will remain available on the platform, Deezer says it is demonetising such content to prevent royalty dilution for human musicians. "We want to make sure royalties supposed to go to artists aren't being taken away," Lanternier explained.

According to Deezer, more than 20,000 AI-generated tracks are uploaded to the service every day—nearly 18% of all new music added to the platform. Just four months earlier, the figure stood at 10,000 daily uploads, underscoring how rapidly AI tools like Suno and Udio are being used to generate songs with nothing more than a short text prompt.

Lanternier said Deezer’s in-house AI detection tool can identify synthetic music with up to 98% accuracy by analyzing subtle markers embedded in the audio waveforms—clues imperceptible to human ears but visible in the signal data. “There are little sounds that only [AI algorithms] make which give them away,” he said.

Though still relatively small in scale—with around 9.7 million subscribers, mostly in France—Deezer is setting a precedent that larger competitors may be forced to follow. Spotify, which boasts over 268 million subscribers, has yet to implement a similar policy and continues to host AI-generated content without specific labelling or demonetisation.

Spotify has instead emphasized the lack of legal clarity around what defines an AI-generated song, and how to distinguish it from human-produced content.

Deezer’s move may reignite the global debate around creative ownership, digital ethics, and how the music industry should evolve as artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent in the production process.


By WafricNews Desk.