AI Music Fraud: Streaming Bots Drain Artists' Royalties
Bots flood streaming services with AI tunes, racking up billions in fake streams.
Since January 2026, Sky News reports the rise of AI‑generated music flooding platforms like Deezer and Spotify. Daily, 60,000 fully synthetic tracks appear on Deezer, about one‑third of all uploads, translating to roughly 21 million AI songs a year. Fraudsters then deploy bots that replay these tracks en masse, creating fake streams. Deezer’s research head, Romain Hennequin, says 85 % of AI‑track plays are malicious, while head of royalties Thibault Roucou estimates 8‑9 % of all platform streams are bogus, amounting to $2‑3 billion globally. Spotify last year deleted 75 million spam tracks, half its catalogue. Artists like folk singer Lila Tristram warn the practice drains real royalties, prompting industry calls for stricter detection and labeling.
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