AI Cannibals Eat Into $26 Billion Music Market

Growth of AI music poses competition for human artists on streaming platforms.

- Lionel Laurent

The song Echoes Of Tomorrow is a laid-back, catchy tune that might happily slot into summertime playlists on Spotify or Apple Music. Only the lyrics, which make curious references to "algorithms," reveal its non-human creator: artificial intelligence (AI).

The track's mimicry of flesh-and-blood pop is pretty unsettling. Yet, what's really disturbing is the sheer quantity of similar AI tunes sloshing around online. Tools like Udio and Suno, trained on millions of songs crafted by human artists, are now churning out millions of their own tunes at the click of a button.

Deezer, a rival of Spotify Technology, estimates 20,000 AI tracks are uploaded to its platform daily, or 18 per cent of the total. While they account for only 0.5 per cent of total listens, real royalties are being earned and often fraudulently so, judging by the spread of bots to amplify listens. This may not be a Napster-scale issue yet — but the US$20 billion (S$26 billion) music market is clearly vulnerable.

Which is why Deezer is now tapping on a little more sunlight to disinfect its platform. It's going to start labelling AI-generated content, based on proprietary software.