In the dim glow of the studio, a musician strums a chord progression that took months to perfect. Across the internet, an AI churns out a melody in seconds.<\/p>\n
Such is the reality of making music in 2025. But Deezer, the Paris-based streaming service, is taking action to ensure human artists aren’t having to elbow AI programs at every turn in their efforts to earn a living from royalty-based income.<\/p>\n
The company revealed this week that its newly launched AI-detection tool is already flagging 10,000 tracks daily, representing a staggering 10% of all uploads to the platform.\u00a0These are fully formed “songs” created by advanced prompt-based tools the likes of Suno and Udio<\/a>. But Deezer isn\u2019t simply hitting delete. Instead, it\u2019s quietly quarantining these tracks from playlists and broader recommendations.<\/p>\n “Generative AI has the potential to positively impact music creation and consumption,” said Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier. “But its use must be guided by responsibility and care in order to safeguard the rights and revenues of artists and songwriters.”\u00a0<\/p>\n With over 90 million tracks in Deezer’s catalog, the platform is staking its reputation on curatorial integrity. While AI-driven hyper-personalization is on the rise, Deezer is betting listeners will still crave a human touch. Its detection tool, patented last December, acts as a gatekeeper by scanning uploads for the fingerprints of AI, such as subtle patterns in rhythm, timbre and structure that struggle to be masked.<\/p>\n Most detectors fail when faced with new AI models, but Deezer\u2019s Chief Innovation Officer Aur\u00e9lien H\u00e9rault claims their system adapts like a musical antibody, learning from datasets of known AI outputs to identify unknowns.<\/p>\n “Tools that are on the market today can be highly effective as long as they are trained on data sets from a specific generative AI model, but the detection rate drastically decreases as soon as the tool is subjected to a new model or new data,” H\u00e9rault explained. “We have addressed this challenge and created a tool that is significantly more robust and applicable to multiple models.”<\/p>\n With streaming royalties already a fractions-of-a-penny game, 10,000 AI tracks each day could siphon millions from working musicians in aggregate. Ergo, Deezer\u2019s solution is to sideline AI tracks and ensure royalties flow primarily to human creators. Still, the question lingers, can any platform truly hold back the tide?\u00a0<\/p>\n