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All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
With more and more people cutting traditional cable, Philo remains one of the best ways to stream live TV channels and on-demand movies and TV titles for cheap.

And if you’re a new subscriber, you can sign up for a seven-day free trial to try out the streamer for yourself before you commit to monthly service. However, you can also cancel anytime, which gives you a lot of freedom.

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Keep reading for additional details on Philo pricing, channel availability, TV shows to watch and how to join the streaming service.

How many channels can you stream on Philo? Right now, Philo offers more than 100 channels that you can stream free of charge. No credit card required — simply sign up to test it out.

Philo

Seven-day Free Trial

Philo

$28 per month

Philo has a slate of free channels with ad-supported free-to-stream movies, TV shows and other programming. However, you can upgrade to Philo to stream more than 70 channels, including A&E, MTV, Lifetime, OWN, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., HGTV, TLC, BET, FYI, WE tv, Logo and Discovery Channel for $28 per month. A subscription even comes with unlimited DVR cloud recording.

Currently, the most popular titles on Philo, include Tyler Perry’s Sistas on BET, Caught in the Act: Unfaithful on MTV, 90 Day Fiancé on TLC, Love & Hip Hop Miami on VH1, Love After Lockup: Crime Story on We tv and much more.

BET

‘Tyler Perry’s Sistas’

on BET

MTV

‘Caught in the Act: Unfaithful’

on MTV

TLC

’90 Day Fiancé’

on TLC

VH1

‘Love & Hip Hop Miami’

on VH1

We TV

‘Love After Lockup: Crime Story’

on We tv

You can stream Philo on the app or online via web browser at Philo.com. The app is compatible with Google TV, Chromecast, Apple TV 4K, Samsung TV, Fire TV, Roku, Apple and Android mobile devices and other streaming platforms. Learn more about Philo’s programming, channel availability, pricing and more here.

Click below to launch your seven-day free trial to Philo.  

Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.

Most people might not open their streaming platform of choice and play a track of wave sounds or bird calls. But on the cross-DSP page that lists “Nature” as an official artist, listeners will hear many of Mother Earth’s greatest hits, rarities and B-sides woven into songs from a growing group of musicians making nature-infused music for a good and urgent cause.
Launched in April 2024, this project, called Sounds Right, raises money for conservation efforts by generating royalties from noises credited to “nature.” On Tuesday (April 22), in honor of Earth Day, the multi-genre playlist is adding music from 36 new artists, all of whom have created original songs incorporating elements like the crashing of waves and glaciers, the delicate buzz of moth wings, running antelopes and wildlife in the dense Amazonian rainforest — all recorded out in the field. 

Some of the artists involved include U.K. disco pop duo Franc Moody, Belgian techno star Amelie Lens, Indian pop artist Armaan Malik, hip-hop group KAM-BU and Swedish House Mafia’s Steve Angello. A track by I. JORDAN features the call of the U.K.’s rare Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, while London producer Alice Boyd layered vintage 1970s bird songs with present-day recordings to illustrate the natural soundscapes that have been lost to human development. Many of the project’s archival nature sounds were donated by esteemed field recording artist Martyn Stewart and his project, The Listening Planet. 

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As the music industry grapples with how to mitigate climate change within the sector, Sounds Right’s expansion is another indicator that artists are keen to plug into opportunities to help. Sounds Right global program director Gabriel Smales tells Billboard that many of these artists were recruited by EarthPercent and Eleutheria Group — both Sounds Right partners who reached out to musicians with “what we think is one of the most meaningful creative opportunities in music,” he says. Other artists reached out to Sounds Right directly with a desire to contribute, raise money and, Smales says, “treat the natural world as a partner — a creative force with something urgent to say.” 

While the original group of Sounds Right artists mostly remixed pre-existing songs to incorporate wind, waves, birds and more, Tuesday’s addition is largely new music, a shift that Smales says “tells us this isn’t a one-time campaign — it’s becoming a space for genuine artistic and cultural expression.” He cites an ambitious goal of “every artist” making at least one track “with Nature” and says Sounds Right will soon be announcing a way for anyone who’d like to participate to get on board.  

A huge incentive to do so? The project is working. The tracks included in Sounds Right’s 2024 launch have racked up more than 100 million streams from more than 10 million listeners, with Smales citing “significant” media interest and social media engagement. In the last year, Sounds Right has raised $225,000 for Indigenous and community-led conservation in the Tropical Andes, an area famous for its biodiversity, with $100,000 coming from royalties and the rest coming from individual and institutional donations.   

This money has funded organizations like Colombia’s Fundación Proyecto Tití, which protects critically endangered cotton-top tamarin monkeys and employs locals to steward more than 2,200 acres of regenerated forest. The money from Sounds Right has specifically funded the group’s restoration work with local farmers and the preservation of forest corridors. Meanwhile, money donated to Reserva Natural La Planada is being used to invest in scientific tourism and the protection of biocultural heritage across nearly 8,000 acres of land governed by 10 Indigenous communities in Colombia’s Awá Pialapí Pueblo Reserve.  

As more artists contribute and Sounds Right streams grow, royalties are expected to scale “significantly,” says Smales, at which point leaders will invite more donors and match-funders to multiply funding. Smales anticipates committing “far more” funding in 2025 than in 2024 and aims to raise $5 million annually by 2028.

But he says Sounds Right leaders “are under no illusion” that $5 million a year will fix the accelerating horrors of climate change and attendant environmental degradation. Wildlife populations have dropped by an average of 69% in the past 50 years, more than 1.2 million species are currently at risk of extinction and more than two-thirds of the Earth’s land and marine ecosystems have been degraded by human activity. Meanwhile, wildfires, floods, extreme heat and other weather events are affecting delicate ecosystems and displacing humans and animals around the world.  

“So far we’ve failed to address the root cause of the biodiversity crisis,” Smales says. “Our economic model doesn’t value nature properly, treating it as a resource to be optimally exploited and a place to dump our waste.” As such, a major goal for Sounds Right is getting people to see nature’s inherent value and recognizing the earth as not just something we use and live on, but as a living entity to protect.  

Sounds Right is pushing this message on multiple continents. In Denmark, the project is helping send young people on artist-led nature trips and encouraging them to share 10-second field recordings as part of a #naturesings campaign. In Colombia, Sounds Right partner VozTerra is supporting teachers to train their students in acoustic ecology. A project in Kenya is forthcoming, as is additional music to be added to the playlist in conjunction with World Mental Health Day in October. Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in the Brazilian Amazon this November, Sounds Right will spotlight musical “collaborations” with the Amazon and Congo Basins, which together produce roughly 40% of the world’s oxygen and which are targeted to start receiving Sounds Right funding from 2025 onwards.

While climate change is daunting and the world is vast, Smales thinks Sounds Right has huge potential to effect change, given that it meets people in a very personal place: “their ears and the phones in their pockets.” The idea is to create greater interest in and love for nature by putting it in the music we all live our lives to, an awakening Smales hopes will inspire people to do more and to demonstrate the public demand for change to business and political leaders.  

“We’re working,” he says, “to go beyond the headphones and build a deeper sense of agency in our collective efforts to protect the planet.”  

As a festival platform, the Fyre brand doesn’t have the best reputation, to say the least. Originally billed as the ultimate FOMO event for influencers and scenesters, the high-profile collapse of the 2017 Fyre Festival in the Bahamas has become the ultimate symbol for hubris in the live music business and an unofficial synonym for any event plagued by disorganization, malaise or misery.
Now that Fyre founder Billy McFarland has tried, and once again failed, to revive the Fyre Fest name, most music fans have written off the brand as dead — but one Cleveland music and media executive has a new vision for the creatively spelled four-letter word.

Enter Fyre Music Streaming Ventures, LLC, a fan-curated on-demand music video streaming service that founder Shawn Rech hopes will become “home for the most passionate music fans and undiscovered talent around the world,” according to a release.

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“I just want people to remember the name,” Rech tells Billboard on why he chose Fyre. “It’s really that simple. It’s PT Barnum. All publicity is good publicity.”

Rech tells Billboard that shortly after the second Fyre Festival started collapsing last week, his team was on the phone with McFarland hammering out an agreement to use the Fyre name, logos and trademarks to brand the streaming venture. The agreement with Rech won’t impact McFarland’s ability to stage Fyre Festival at a future date.

Since getting out of prison in late 2022, McFarland has been hyping Fyre Festival 2 as a kind of redemption project following the disastrous 2017 event in the Bahamas that left fans stranded and resulted in a three-year sentence for the founder. Originally announced to be taking place on Isla Mujeres in Mexico, McFarland later moved the festival to Playa del Carmen before canceling it altogether after local officials in the Mexican town denied any knowledge of its existence.

Rech is a veteran entertainment executive and president/co-founder of the TruBlu Crime Network, which he launched with former To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen in 2022. For $4.99 a month, TruBlu subscribers get access to dozens of licensed true crime shows and documentaries like A+E After Dark, Bounty Hunters and Takedown with Chris Hansen, accessible across devices via download apps and native channels built into smart TVs.

Rech says Fyre “is like a curated YouTube with an emphasis on music.” It will operate as both a subscription service and as a FAST channel, an acronym for Free Ad-supported Streaming TV, with more linear-based programming and music content submitted and upvoted by fans. Fyre will also offer audio-only capabilities for fans looking to stream content on their phones at a lower bandwidth. Metadata identification will be verified by GraceNote.

“The relationship is between the artist and the fan through a single conduit. We intend to be that conduit,” Rech says.

Fyre will use both tastemakers and fan behavior to help drive its content strategy and potentially feature McFarland in a potential talent role in the future, although nothing has been finalized.

“He was fine to deal with; I have nothing negative to say,” Rech said when asked about working with McFarland. “He’s a big dreamer.”

You can learn more about the project and sign up for notifications at watchfyretv.com.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Don’t look now, but Lifetime is having a resurgence.

Yes, the television channel that was once home to cheesy Christmas movies and over-the-top shows is now delivering some seriously must-watch programming. From a Taylor Swift-inspired Christmas movie last year to a controversial Wendy Williams documentary, Lifetime has now become a destination for buzzed-about films, shows and specials that span music and pop culture interests.

Many musicians are now also flexing their acting chops in Lifetime movies, like Glee star Amber Riley in the Single Black Female trilogy, while Mary J. Blige, Lisa Lisa and Gloria Gaynor are featured in Lifetime’s 2025 “Voices of a Lifetime” series. And yes, we still love watching those Lifetime Christmas movies too.

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Lifetime is available as a channel in most cable packages so you can watch Lifetime on TV through your cable provider. While many people have cut the cable cord, there are still ways to watch Lifetime (and Lifetime movies) online. Here’s what you need to know.

How to Watch Lifetime Channel Online Without Cable

The best way to watch Lifetime channel live online without cable is by using a live TV streaming service, like DirecTV or Philo. Both offer a live Lifetime feed so you can watch whatever is airing on TV but from your computer, phone or tablet (and from your smart TV too).

We like Philo, which costs just $28/month for more than 70 live television channels, including Lifetime, AMC, BET, MTV, TLC, VH1 and more. Philo also includes access to the Lifetime Movie Network for even more content options. Test out Philo with a seven-day free trial here to stream Lifetime online for free.

We also like DirecTV, which is the most comprehensive live TV streamer on our list. DirecTV’s base entertainment package includes 90+ live TV channels, including Lifetime. You also get access to Bravo, E!, ESPN, MTV and more, plus most local networks like ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX.

DirecTV plans start at $84.99/month but you can test drive the service with a five-day free trial here.

Your most affordable way to stream Lifetime movies live online is through frndly TV. One of the newer streaming services to hit the market, frndly’s plans start at just $6.99/month for 50+ channels. Their channel lineup includes Lifetime, Hallmark Channel, Great American Family, ION and more. Even better: get a seven-day free trial here and use it to watch Lifetime online free.

How to Watch Lifetime Movies On-Demand Online

The live streaming services above will let you watch the Lifetime channel live online, but what if you wanted to find a favorite Lifetime movie to watch on-demand? Luckily, the same streaming services listed in the previous section will let you watch movies and specials on-demand on the Lifetime website.

Simply create a profile on the MyLifetime.com website and enter your cable provider details. Don’t have cable? You can enter your DirecTV and Philo details too to get access to all the content on Lifetime’s official site.

Another way to watch Lifetime movies on-demand? You can also sign up for Lifetime Movie Club, which has thousands of titles available to watch online. Regularly $4.99/month, Amazon Prime members can get a seven-day free trial here to watch Lifetime Movie Club online free. One of the best parts of Lifetime Movie Club is the ability to stream the movies ad-free.

Not a Prime member? Use this generous 30-day free trial to get access to the Lifetime Movie Club in addition to all the other Prime member perks, like free shipping, Prime Day deals and more.

Select Lifetime movies are also available to rent or download through Prime Video. See full details here.

Music stocks bounced back — and performed better than major U.S. indexes— for a second week after President Trump’s tariff policy sent markets into a tailspin. 
The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) rose 3.6% to 2,446.90, its second consecutive gain after falling 8.2% the week ended April 4. Fourteen of the 20 stocks were winners and five had gains exceeding 5%. The largest companies were among the week’s winners, which had an outsized impact on the index’s value, while the four worst performers are the index’s least valuable companies. 

The BGMI outperformed the Nasdaq and S&P 500, which lost 2.6% and 1.5%, respectively, but fell short of the FTSE 100’s 3.9% improvement. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 2.1% and China’s SSE Composite Index rose 1.2%. 

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Streaming companies, which analysts believe are well-suited to survive the impacts of the U.S. tariff policy, were among the week’s best performers. Cloud Music was the week’s biggest gainer, rising 10.5% to 156.40 HKD ($20.15). Deezer was the third-best performer with a 6.7% gain. 

Spotify, the most valuable music company, rose 5.6% to $574.25. UBS lowered its Spotify price target on Tuesday to $680 from $690 but maintained its buy rating. Tencent Music Entertainment improved just 0.4%, giving it a 10.2% gain in 2025. 

Multi-sector companies, particularly those from South Korea, also performed well. YG Entertainment rose 10.0% to 66,800 KRW ($47.10). SM Entertainment rose 9.3% to 116,300 KRW ($81.99) and JYP Entertainment improved 6.2% to 63,300 KRW ($44.63). HYBE rose 2.0% to 230,500 KRW ($162.51). 

Universal Music Group rose 3.2% to 23.96 euros ($27.25), turning a deficit into a year-to-date gain of 0.2%. Warner Music Group rose 0.3%, bringing its loss in 2025 to 6.1%. 

Live entertainment companies had mixed results. German promoter CTS Eventim gained 4.2% to 97.20 euros ($110.54) and MSG Entertainment rose 1.2% to $30.69. Live Nation fell 1.8% to $127.22. Sphere Entertainment Co. dropped 6.3% to $25.38. The company, which owns the Sphere venue in Las Vegas, has fallen 40.2% year to date.

Radio companies continued their decline. iHeartMedia dropped 14.8%, bringing its year-to-date loss to 54%. Cumulus Media’s 19.4% fall took its year-to-date deficit to 67.5%. 

Tariffs continued to be a dominant theme in the financial world this week. Apple and other tech companies that import phones, computers and chips from China and other Asian countries gained a reprieve from the most burdensome tariffs. The announcement, which came on April 11, sent Apple’s stock up 2% on Monday (April 14) and pushed its market capitalization back past $3 trillion. On Thursday, the Trump administration announced new fees on Chinese-made ships entering U.S. ports. Some of those fees were quickly walked back, however, by exempting ships that travel between U.S. ports of call, and from domestic ports to Caribbean islands or U.S. territories.

Billboard

Billboard

Billboard

Investors seeking shelter from the chaos unleashed by President Trump’s often incoherent tariff policy can find safety in companies without direct exposure to tariffs or the teetering advertising market. And music, especially digital music, will be able to weather the storm, say many analysts — with one major exception.
To understand what people are thinking about tariffs’ impact on the business world, look no further than stock prices. The performance of various music-related stocks reveals how investors are betting that economic uncertainty will affect various companies.

Many stocks — especially those of companies traded on U.S. exchanges — have taken a hit as investors fled for safer alternatives. The Nasdaq and S&P 500, U.S. indexes, are down 6.2% and 6.7%, respectively, since April 1, the day before President Trump announced his tariff plans. Elsewhere in the world, indexes have generally performed better. South Korea’s KOSPI is down just 2.0%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is off 3.5%. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 is down 4.2%. Germany’s DAX has lost 5.9%.

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Within music, companies that get most of their revenue from streaming are faring relatively well. Since April 1, Spotify and Deezer have each gained 4.0%, two of the better showings for music stocks. Cloud Music improved 3.9%. Tencent Music Entertainment, on the other hand, has fallen 15.1%, although its share price remains up 8.1% year to date.

Record labels and publishers have also been holding up well, in relative terms, particularly outside the U.S. Since April 1, shares of Universal Music Group (UMG) — which is headquartered in the U.S. but trades in Amsterdam — and Warner Music Group (WMG) are down 8.0% and 7.1%, respectively. Reservoir Media lost 3.0%. K-pop companies — much like South Korean companies in general — have fared well. Since April 1, SM Entertainment has gained 7.9%, YG Entertainment is up 1.1% and JYP Entertainment has gained 0.7%. HYBE fell 3.4%.

UMG and WMG’s post-tariff declines are slightly greater than the drops in the Nasdaq and S&P 500 of 6.7% and 6.2%, respectively. But both UMG and WMG had strong starts to 2025, and their year-to-date losses of 4.5% and 6.1% are far better than the S&P 500’s 10.2% drop and the Nasdaq’s 15.7% year-to-date decline.

Some live music companies’ stocks have been resilient, too. Live Nation shares are down 3.7% since April 1, while German concert promoter CTS Eventim is up 3.2%. Sphere Entertainment Co., owner of the Sphere venue in Las Vegas, is an exception. Sphere Entertainment shares have plummeted 23.1% since President Trump’s tariff announcement, a far more significant drop than the stocks of other companies — Caesars Entertainment, Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts — that rely on consumers’ willingness to part with their money in Las Vegas.

For many U.S. media stocks, the direct impact of tariffs is “relatively muted,” wrote Citi analysts in an April 7 report, as many of the companies rely on discretionary spending, not ad revenue. Apple and other tech companies, for example, got an exemption from the 145% tariffs on Chinese imports but must still pay the blanket 20% tariff. Companies that get much of their revenues from subscriptions — Netflix, Spotify, UMG and WMG — will be less impacted.

Music streaming, most notably subscription services, is considered by equity analysts to be safe from whatever tariff-induced economic chaos awaits the global market. “Digital goods are unaffected by tariffs,” wrote TD Cowen analysts in an April 14 investor report. Subscription services, they argued, provide enough bang for the buck, and customers have such an emotional attachment to music that subscribers are unlikely to leave in “meaningful” numbers if the economy goes south.

Streaming and subscription growth slowed in 2024, but many analysts expect improvements to come from a regular drumbeat of price increases, renewed licensing deals and super-premium tiers. That said, analysts believe that Spotify’s latest licensing deals with UMG and WMG, and upcoming deals with other rights holders, better reward labels and publishers for price increases. As a result, TD Cowen slightly lowered its estimates for Spotify’s revenue, gross profit margin and operating income in 2025. Likewise, in an April 4 note to investors, Guggenheim analysts lowered their estimate for Spotify’s gross margin in the second half of 2025.

Companies reliant on advertising revenue will also take an indirect hit. Citi estimates that $4 trillion of imports could generate $700 billion in tariffs and reduce personal consumer and ad spending by 1.9%. Tariffs have ripple effects, too. Because household net worth and personal spending are highly correlated, says Citi, the recent declines in stock prices could reduce personal and advertising spending by 3.0%.

Consumer spending is at the heart of the concert business, but analysts agree that fans’ affection for their favorite artists protects live music from economic downturns. As a result, Live Nation has “less risk than the average business that depends on discretionary spending,” according to TD Cowen analysts.

Advertising-related businesses aren’t so lucky, though. As tariffs raise prices and household wealth declines, personal spending also declines, and, in turn, brands pull back on their advertising spending. Investors’ expectations for advertising-dependent businesses were apparent before April but have become clearer since President Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement. iHeartMedia, which closed on Thursday (April 17) below $1.00 per share for the first time since June 4, 2024, has dropped 35.3% since April 1 and fallen 50.3% year to date. Cumulus Media has fared even worse, dropping 47.5% since April 1 and 62.7% year to date. Townsquare Media has fallen 12.8% in the tariff era and 23.8% year to date.

J.P. Morgan analysts believe iHeartMedia’s full-year guidance of $770 million is “somewhat optimistic” given economic uncertainties and ongoing pressures in the radio business. It forecasts full-year EBITDA of $725 million — nearly 6% lower than iHeartMedia’s guidance. If things wind up going more the way J.P. Morgan predicts than iHeart, it would be a big blow to the company and an unfortunate bellwether for the already struggling radio business. While other music industry sectors look to ride out the tariffs at least in the shorter term, the economic uncertainty introduced by the Trump administration may only hasten radio’s ongoing decline.

As Billboard has noted numerous times in recent weeks, investors are attracted to music assets because they are counter-cyclical, meaning they don’t follow the typical ups and downs of the economy. Consumers will, by and large, stick with their music subscription services and continue going to concerts. But by introducing the tariffs, the Trump regime exposed one of radio’s greatest weaknesses as a business: a greater exposure, due to its reliance on advertising, to the state of the wider economy.

Billboard

Last year, I wrote an op-ed titled “Fighting Streaming Fraud at the Distributor Level.” In it, I discussed the complexity of streaming fraud, where it comes from and how it can be solved with all industry stakeholders working together. At Symphonic Distribution, we’ve worked to create resources for our clients, such as an analytics tool that shows fraudulent streams and best practices for streaming safely while utilizing KYC (know your customer) efforts to combat increases in fraud and championing the use of identity verification. All of these efforts, along with continued collaboration between members of the Music Fights Fraud Alliance (MFFA), have led to a reduction in instances of fraud.
In the months since my op-ed was released, streaming fraud has become an even more important topic of conversation at industry events and conferences and is being meaningfully addressed by distributors around the globe. Currently, most distributors have continued to be or are now involved in learning how to proactively deal with fraud; they’ve been more vocal, provided more data to each other, and most now have policies to prevent it as best they can. However, fraud has also become more sophisticated, and like a virus, it has mutated and evolved to better hide itself. For example, we’ve recently seen fraudsters begin to “sprinkle” fraudulent activity through bot playlists, use AI to impersonate artists and even attack legitimate streaming activity to weaponize fraud against others as sabotage; the latter even happened to me.

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Symphonic has had success in decreasing fraud and been outspoken about what can be done to combat it. I can say we’ve seen results, and that our work will continue, but we felt it important to be transparent about what could be done to continue to make progress in this area.

Distributors

As I’ve said before, distributors need to implement advanced KYC procedures. At an absolute minimum, there needs to be robust identification checks for all new labels and artists they bring under their umbrella. Fraudsters cannot commit fraud if they can’t upload their tracks, and many will balk when asked to provide their personal ID. Moreover, if they do provide their ID and commit fraud that is then traced to them, all accounts linked to that ID can be deleted at once.

Additionally, leveraging platforms such as Tipalti, Trolley and other fintech payment platforms is helpful for OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) compliance and further helps identify the individual. As distributors, we all have a responsibility to ensure that who we’re dealing with is actually who they say they are and truly the rightsholder. This is a challenge, but the effort is worth it.

Here are a few additional actions distributors can take:

Implement and Enforce Strict Content Verification Processes

Before content is published, implementing rigorous verification procedures can prevent the distribution of infringing material. This includes verifying the authenticity of tracks and ensuring that proper licenses are in place. Sony Music’s recent removal of over 75,000 AI-generated deepfake recordings highlights the importance of proactive content management.

Educate Artists and Labels on Ethical Practices

Providing clear guidelines about artificial streaming and its consequences is crucial. Educating stakeholders on the risks associated with fraudulent services and emphasizing the importance of organic growth can deter participation in unethical practices. Resources like Symphonic’s best practices for streaming safely offer valuable insights.

Collaborate Across the Industry

Forming alliances and working collectively can strengthen the fight against fraud. Initiatives like the MFFA demonstrate the effectiveness of industry-wide collaboration in addressing streaming fraud.

DSPs

Similarly, digital service providers (DSPs) need to be more discerning about what content gets ingested into their platforms. With more than 200,000 tracks being added on many of them each day, DSPs must take a more active role in creating more friction in the process of uploading music to dissuade and discourage fraudsters.

What DSPs can do to help:

Strengthen User-Generated Content (UGC) Systems for Issue Resolution

UGC platforms have developed systems that help identify and resolve disputes among parties without the need for extensive legal action. Strengthening these systems can enhance conflict resolution and reduce litigation.

Meaningfully Address AI in Music

At a minimum, AI-generated songs should be clearly labeled. Action is already being taken here with groups like AI:OK working on developing an AI Trustmark, but DSPs should already be adopting more stringent AI guidance. At Symphonic, we ask our clients whether they have used “Some,” “All,” or “No” AI in their content during the upload process to improve identification. We are also exploring partnerships to enhance AI detection and verification.

The bigger question remains: What is AI-generated music worth? DSPs could provide more guidance in this area, and implementing clearer rules now could drive more rapid and structured change while legal frameworks evolve. We are not anti-AI, but we support the idea that fully AI-generated content should be valued less than AI-assisted human-created content.

Develop and Implement Stronger Regulations for Distributors

As a result of fraud, distribution needs to be taken more seriously than it currently is. There are too many distributors with overly open policies who do not approach the matter responsibly. Instead of adding more distributors, we should consider working with the many reputable companies that already exist. And by extension, DSPs shouldn’t work with new distributors unless they are addressing fraud at the point of ingestion.

Coming Together

With fraudsters finding new and unique ways to commit fraud, distributors, DSPs, and other entities in the industry have come together to fight them. Chiefly, the MFFA, formed in 2023, continues to expand and add new members and anti-fraud initiatives. Since its inception, the MFFA has grown to more than 20 members. In addition to Symphonic, it includes Tunecore, CD Baby, Empire, Spotify, SoundCloud, Meta and many more. Those who are a part of the MFFA are beginning to continuously share information with each other so that we all know what to look for and stay informed as an industry on how best to fight fraud. This data sharing practice has already helped Symphonic reduce fraud, and from what we’ve heard, it is also doing the same for our partners in the MFFA.

I’ve continued to have these conversations at conferences and other industry events, and the enthusiasm for coming together to fight fraud is apparent. With the appointment of Michael Lewan as executive director, the work of the MFFA is going to accelerate quickly, and more companies will soon be able to join to expand the work they’re doing.

At the end of the day, there will always be more we as an industry can do to combat fraud because, like all things, it will continue to evolve. We need to make it harder for bad actors and fairer for real artists. As we’ve done already, distributors need to enhance their KYC efforts — if you don’t know who your clients are or have a way of identifying them individually, don’t work with them. On the other side, DSPs need to be more cognizant of what’s being ingested on their platforms and build some walls to slow down the process and enable fraud identification. We’ll continue to have these conversations and fight for a fair, safe, and trusted environment for artists, songwriters, and consumers to listen and submit music to.

Jorge Brea is the Founder and CEO of Symphonic Distribution, a 100% independent company offering full-service distribution, marketing, royalty collection, and more for record labels, artists, managers, and distributors alike with footprints in Tampa, Brooklyn, Nashville, Bogotá, Mexico, South Africa, Canada, and Brazil. Jorge is an active member of the Music FIghts Fraud Alliance, was named to Billboard‘s 2024 International Power Players list, won the Music Biz 2024 #NEXTGEN_NOW One to Watch Bizzy Award, and in 2023 was on the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list.

Last month, Billboard was invited to the Spotify offices in Downtown Los Angeles to meet its top editors and curators and get an inside look at how Spotify’s playlists come together, genre-by-genre. And leading that team is Sulinna Ong, global head of editorial at Spotify. Over time, Ong has held a variety of roles at companies like Live Nation, Sony BMG Music and French streaming service Deezer, before joining Spotify in 2019. After coming aboard, she served as its Head of Music (UK) and Head of Artist and Label Services (UK) before taking the helm of editorial.
In her role, Ong has worked to evolve what playlists can be — from launching the ephemeral and personalized options like Daylist and AI DJ, to further building out the worlds of longstanding flagship playlists RapCaviar and Today’s Top Hits. These days, most of all, Ong is interested in adding more context to the playlists, as she senses Spotify users becoming increasingly interested in having more of a human touch to those listening experiences.

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To explain her strategy with Spotify’s editorial in 2025, Ong sat down with Billboard for an extended interview to explain her stance on AI music in playlists, changing user behavior, future growth markets and why she wants to bring her team of editors into the spotlight more than ever.

What are some of your goals for Spotify’s editorial team in 2025? 

We’re thinking about how to make the playlists more engaging, and we think it’s a combination of short-form video and editorial. We refer to our roles as editorial, but they also involve curation. Editorial is the storytelling, the context: “Why is this important? Why is it culturally relevant?” The curation is, “What song? What artist?” There’s an art to combining both. As we look to the future, the editorial side is becoming even more critical. We are doubling down as human music editors in music discovery and trend forecasting in 2025.

What will this editorial short-form look like? And is it something that’s interactive, allowing for comments, likes, etc.? 

We format this in what we call editorial Watchfeeds. That will include written track commentary, editor videos and more. We’ve been thinking about how do we incorporate social and community elements? Whether that’s commenting, liking — it’s a combination of all those things.

Spotify used to have more social-like features, like the direct message feature, which has since been removed. Do you see this move towards more social elements as a way to retain users in-app? 

We want to broaden the ecosystem. We want to have our users spend as much [time] as possible and interact with one another as well. One of the editorial Watchfeeds that we did, as an early example to test the hypothesis, was Carl Chery [head of urban editorial] during the Drake–Kendrick battle. We kept getting asked, especially Carl, about what was happening. It was all coming so fast. So we did an editorial Watchfeed where we explained it in sequence. That did really well. Some of the feedback from users was, “I didn’t have to go elsewhere to find this information.” That was really interesting for me. 

Why did you decide that short-form video was the right way to editorialize these playlists? 

In a world where people’s attention spans are short, it made sense. Are users really going to sit and watch a 30 minute diatribe monologue before getting into the playlist? That’s not realistic.

TikTok, Reels and Shorts have been in the short-form video space for years now. Is Spotify getting on this trend too late? 

We’re not a social media platform. This is a tool to expand the storytelling experience of the music and the recommendations, which is why it’s not all short-form video. It’s just one part of our toolkit. Text and track commentary is also something we want to do, so it’s not all short-form video content. 

For a long time, it was Daniel Ek’s goal to make Spotify the destination for audio. More recently, that goal has expanded to video. The Watchfeed is not the first time Spotify has experimented with video. What have you learned from previous successes and failures with video on Spotify? 

We experimented with longer-form video a few years ago, and it didn’t really connect. I think actually podcasts were something that were really interesting for us to watch. It was interesting to see how core video actually ended up being to the podcast experience and the podcast audience. Yes, podcasts are longer-form, but might that be interesting for a playlist experience to try some kind of video for editorializing? I come back to editorializing because that’s what podcasts do — they provide context on a topic. We thought the next step is to do that for music. It’s not exactly the same experience, it’s not like for like, but there are components of that technology that became Watchfeed.

Until now, Spotify’s curators have largely worked anonymously. Why change that?

A lot of thought went into it. When you think about the era that we’re in in terms of AI and machine learning, people want to know — is this AI or human? What’s your point of view? AI doesn’t have a point of view. We found that people actually are interested about the people behind the playlist. 

Over the couple of years, Spotify has leaned into cutting edge tech-driven features like Daylist or AI DJ. In 2025, though you’re leaning into editorializing playlists. How do you see the balance between human and algorithmic aspects of playlisting today? 

They live together. I’ve never seen it as an either/or situation. I think you need both and both have unique strengths. Over time the editorial role has grown. But we are still focused on the strengths of each and combining the two. 

AI has played a key role in some of your newer features, like AI DJ, but how does the editorial team treat generative AI music that ends up on Spotify? Do you have any rules against playlisting it? 

We are focused on human artists and the music they create. That is what we feel is really important. We did curate, though, Kito’s track [“Cold Touch”] that used Grimes’ AI voice on it. But Kito is a bonafide artist that had the blessing of another artist to use her AI likeness and voice. That is different to us. But we think very thoughtfully about our focus on supporting real, human artists. To this point so far, I have not seen a generative AI artist or track take off. That’s not to say that it won’t happen in the future, but right now, that’s not what we’re seeing.

What markets do you think will grow significantly in the next few years? 

India will only be a more important player. Same with Southeast Asia. It’s interesting to look at Southeast Asia because we see Western artists actually getting their foothold in countries like the Philippines. In general, local-language content continues to grow. 

I’ve been asking all of your editors the same question: What is the most common misconception about the role of a Spotify curator? 

There are two. There’s that we are in service to labels and we curate what we’re told; that can’t be further from the truth. There’s an editorial independence that the editorial team has. The second misconception is that you can pay to get on an editorial playlist. I still see people claiming that they can get you on one for a price. It’s a scam. We have a code of ethics for our editors. 

What are some things that are part of your code of ethics, and has your code of ethics evolved over time? 

We have strict rules to protect our editorial independence, like if we get invited to a gig or a festival, and there’s an offer to cover our flights or travel, we’re not allowed to accept. If there is a reason, a business reason, for us to be there, Spotify will cover our travel. We don’t want to be beholden to anyone. And we are constantly reviewing [our code of ethics]. It’s a yearly process of, like, “Do we have the right guidelines and guardrails in place?”

There are reports that there is a super-premium tier on the way for Spotify users willing to pay an extra subscription cost. In return, they will receive new features. Are there any extra editorial offerings in the upcoming new tier? 

I don’t have any info to share with you other than what you already know. We are obviously always thinking about what superfans want and what would entice them to go onto that super premium tier, but I’ve got no details to share. 

Dating back to a Music Business Worldwide story in 2016, there have been reports that Spotify has used company-owned music or so-called “fake artists” or “ghost artists” in its playlists, like Peaceful Piano or Ambient Chill. Those allegations resurfaced this year in the book Mood Machine. Can you provide any comment or clarification on those allegations? 

My team curates purely editorial lists. We curate playlist music from artists. Our team doesn’t touch that.

How much creative freedom do editors actually have? How often do they get the ability to go with their gut? 

They’ve got a lot of freedom to do that, but you do need to critically explain why you believe in something. There’s a balance between our personal tastes and what we think will resonate with a listener. You need to understand the shift between the two. As an editor, it’s important to understand what your biases are and make sure you are not curating with bias. What I mean by that is overdoing it because I really love this artist, or [underdoing it] because I don’t. That’s why we also curate in groups, so we challenge each other. “Why is that there? Why is that not there?” It’s actually part of our training.

It sounds like the playlists operate in a tier structure. Like, an artist can get on Fresh Finds, and if it does well, then maybe the artists get onto All New Indie next. Is that right? 

Yes, we have a playlist pyramid. It’s like working an artist up through the ecosystem. You can’t slam an artist into a big flagship. There needs to be a strategic approach as to how you introduce someone to a new audience.

When Spotify’s social media accounts started posting about the editorial team’s song of the summer predictions in 2024, global head of editorial Sulinna Ong noticed a lot of commenters asking the same question: Is this artificial intelligence? “I actually went in and said, ‘I can assure you we’re not AI,’ ” she says, adding that she then found herself wondering, “Do people care whether it is [AI]?” The answer was a resounding yes. Ong recalls commenters were overjoyed to be able to identify her as a warm-blooded source of the faceless predictions. The reaction amounted to a collective “This is great. You’re human!”
Having focused on high-tech improvements to playlisting over the last few years, such as the AI DJ that subscribers can utilize and improved personalized Daily Mixes, Daylist and other features, Ong says she realized listeners value human input and connection more than ever and decided to recalibrate the “equilibrium” between AI and Spotify’s flesh-and-blood tastemakers.

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“A big tenet of editorial is this idea of reflecting culture and also being able to propel culture forward,” says J.J. Italiano, head of global music curation and discovery.

As a result, Spotify’s editorial team is leaning further into its top playlists with new “Watchfeeds” — written and video content that contextualizes its choices. There’s also more freestyling involved, such as the throwback songs that Spotify head of urban music, editorial Carl Chery slips into RapCaviar on Thursdays, or the newsletter that head of indie/alternative Lizzy Szabo writes for Lorem. Ong says interactive elements such as likes and comments may be added in the future.

To further individualize their work, Spotify’s editorial team came together for a photo and spoke to Billboard about their backgrounds, their work and their favorite music. “We know that cultural knowledge is really important. AI and machine learning excel in passing large data sets and scaling, but when it comes to cultural understanding, that’s where human editors really excel,” Ong says. “But we are still focused on the strengths of both [tech and human features] and combining the two.”

Sulinna OngGlobal head of editorial

Sulinna Ong

Yuri Hasegawa

Raised in the United Kingdom, Iran and Australia, Ong caught the music bug when she heard Kim Gordon singing Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing” as a 13-year-old. She worked in a wide array of roles for Live Nation, Sony BMG Music and French streaming service Deezer before joining Spotify in 2019. Prior to assuming her current position in 2021, Ong served as the streaming platform’s U.K. head of music and U.K. head of artist and label services.

Favorite Spotify playlists?

Misfits 2.0, Liminal.

What are your 2025 goals for the editorial team?

We’re thinking about how to make the playlists more engaging, and we think it’s a combination of short-form video and editorial. We refer to our roles as editorial, but they also involve curation. Editorial is the storytelling, the context: “Why is this important? Why is it culturally relevant?” The curation is, “What song? What artist?” There’s an art to combining both. As we look to the future, the editorial side is becoming even more critical. We are doubling down as human music editors in music discovery and trend forecasting in 2025.

Until now, Spotify’s curators have largely worked anonymously. Why change that?

AI doesn’t have a point of view. We found that people actually are interested about the people behind the playlists.

Read Ong’s full interview here.

Carl CheryHead of urban music, editorial

Carl Chery

Rebecca Sapp

After working at hip-hop magazine XXL, Chery joined Beats Music in 2012, which was folded into Apple Music in 2014. He oversaw hip-hop and R&B at both streaming services before moving to Spotify in 2018, where he leads curation for its urban music playlists, including RapCaviar.

Favorite Spotify playlists?

Locked In, Gold School.

What trends are you spotting?

I’m interested in seeing what happens with sexy drill. Drill’s been around for a long time, and it keeps morphing. If you go back five years, that’s when it really broke through with Pop Smoke and Fivio [Foreign] and the Brooklyn drill scene. Part of the conversation around drill is that its subject matter is so hardcore it’s potentially [limiting the style]. But sexy drill has a lot of appeal. I’m keeping an eye on whether this is going to finally break through as the sound du jour in hip-hop.

What are some common misconceptions about Spotify editors?

Some people think playlisting is based on favors. They don’t pitch songs based on their merits or performance. They think building a relationship with editors enhances their chance of getting playlisted. That’s never been the case. [Others] think that playlisting is based on personal taste. Technically, it doesn’t matter if we like it. One of the most important qualities for editors is to be objective, [though] this doesn’t mean that personal taste doesn’t come into play. The sweet spot is when you get to support something that is at the intersection of your taste and what the audience likes.

Ronny HoHead of dance & electronic, editorial

Ronny Ho

Yuri Hasegawa

Though Ho booked concerts and hosted radio shows in college, she first worked in investment banking, and her initial job at Spotify was in business development. During her first years at the company, she got to know the members of the editorial team because she sat next to them. After moving to Spotify’s music team as a business manager, a role opened up in editorial, and she was given a tryout despite her unorthodox résumé.

Favorite Spotify playlists?

Tech House Operator, Marrow.

Given the global popularity of dance, how do you coordinate with curators around the world to make the best playlists?

We have global curation groups. Dance was one of the first ones that started. It happened naturally with us just reaching out to curators in other markets to see what they’re seeing. We talk now on a weekly basis about new music coming out, trends that are popping off, local subgenres or communities we find interesting.

How are you discovering music for your playlists?

It’s a mix. We get inbound pitches from the Spotify for Artists pitch tool, but I am also going to shows all the time. A lot of DJs are rinsing tracks that aren’t released yet live. I’ll watch and see what the reaction is. If there’s something that really hits with a fan base, I’ll make note of it. Also, I look on the internet.

J.J. ItalianoHead of global music curation and discovery

JJ Italiano

Yuri Hasegawa

Italiano entered the music industry as an artist manager, then shifted his focus when he took a job as head of streaming at talent agency YMU in 2016. He joined Spotify’s editorial team the following year.

Favorite Spotify playlist?

Lorem.

How do you curate New Music Friday?

New Music Friday is a bit like the newspaper. We’re trying to create opportunities for people to discover new stuff that we think they will like so, yes, there’s going to be a handful of high-profile releases that you would expect. Then everyone from their respective genres comes together and brings the tracks they think are most relevant, as well as their favorite songs. Through a process of democracy and a little bit of chaos, we get it out the door.

How do you compile Spotify’s biggest playlist, Today’s Top Hits?

One of the core tenets is that it is not a chart. Yes, we want them to be 50 of the biggest songs that week, but we’re also looking at user behavior. We look at all other playlists — how songs perform with different audiences. It’s more of a science than an art, but it is still both.

Does anyone listen to songs submitted through the pitch tool?

We get pretty decent coverage by humans. There’s over 100 people at Spotify whose job it is to listen to music. We use a combination of the tools we’ve built to sort through it and hiring the right people. Also, we pay attention to songs over time and can identify things that are trending upward or being saved a lot post-release.

Alaysia SierraHead of R&B, editorial

Alaysia Sierra

Yuri Hasegawa

After cutting their teeth as a playlist curator for Apple Music, Sierra was recruited by former Apple Music colleague Carl Chery to spearhead R&B curation.

Favorite Spotify playlist?

Riffs and Runs.

What’s the process of making a playlist?

A few years ago, I noticed there was a sound that emerged out of trap-soul, like Bryson Tiller, PartyNextDoor, Brent Faiyaz. Mostly, when people think of R&B they think of women, but this subgenre of R&B caters to men. I thought, “How do I create a space for them to lean into their R&B-loving?” So we created DND, or Do Not Disturb, to feature that laid-back, masculine feel. I wrote up my ideas, what artists would make sense in the space, what it would look like and presented it.

What changes have you brought to R&B playlists?

When I came in here, I felt like there could be a fresher perspective to R&B that can cater to the TikTok era. There’s a romanticization of ’90s and pre-’90s R&B, but there are all these kids coming up who love and are inspired by the genre. I wanted to evolve R&B at Spotify to showcase that the genre can be so many things today.

Any emerging trends you are particularly excited about?

I’m really excited about U.K. R&B right now. Streaming has globalized music, and I think it’s given a lot of opportunity to that scene. We show that scene on Riffs and Runs.

John SteinHead of North America, editorial

John Stein

Yuri Hasegawa

With almost 12 years at Spotify under his belt, Stein has been involved with playlisting from the beginning. He joined Spotify when the streaming platform acquired his previous employer, the now-defunct curation app Tunigo. Stein and his team became the curators of Spotify’s Browse page, and he worked his way up to his current position.

Favorite Spotify playlist?

Fresh Finds.

How has Spotify’s editorial playlisting evolved?

Back in those early days, we were very broad — much more moods- and moments-focused. There was a real emphasis on being an alternative to terrestrial radio. We wanted to introduce some new options: “Let’s think about activities and curate for those in addition to genres.” Over time, we created strong flagship genre playlists to be anchors, but we’ve also wanted to build out spaces that hit other moments in people’s lives — hopefully pushing forward the idea of blending genres.

What’s the balance of data and human curation in playlists today?

We’re coming to a point where the algorithmic side and the human side are coming together in a really balanced, beautiful way. As a company, we’re trying to embrace the fact that AI is really good at scale and serving you what we know you already like. But [identifying] moments of surprise and serendipity and cultural awareness is really difficult for it. You need a human editor to contextualize it in a way that brings emotion to it.

Lizzy SzaboEditorial lead, indie/alternative

Lizzy Szabo

Yuri Hasegawa

Szabo got her start in music as an agent’s assistant before becoming the executive assistant for former Spotify global head of creator services Troy Carter. She wrote an essay asking to move to the editorial team and detailing what she could do to expand the company’s playlists. It worked: Szabo became an editorial coordinator and worked her way up to helm the service’s indie and alternative coverage.

Favorite Spotify playlists?

All New Indie, Wine Bar.

How do you define the term “indie”?

More and more the question is, “What even is genre?” So we try to think in terms of audiences. With All New Indie, Lorem and those playlists, we are really fluid. Some weeks we question, “Is Caroline Polachek pop or indie?” You can make the case for either, but [we conclude] she would likely work best in indie.

With smaller artists, how do you balance human curation and metrics?

It is a challenge because it feels like there’s a new breakthrough every week in indie. It’s hard to predict. When we’re looking at priority releases for the year, the truth is you might not know. Someone could come along in two months that’s going to change the game. What’s incredible about something like the Fresh Finds program is that it encourages us to go with our guts on the really tiny stuff and have somewhere to put it [for] an audience craving music discovery.

Antonio VasquezHead of U.S. Latin, editorial

Antonio Vazquez

Courtesy of Spotify

A 15-year music business vet, Vasquez began his career doing digital marketing for legacy musicians in Mexico City as social media and Facebook advertisements began to take off. Spotify then hired him as its first editor on the Mexico team. After a year, he moved to New York to start a U.S. Latin team. He’s now based in Miami.

Favorite Spotify playlists?

Fuego, Hanging Out and Relaxing.

How does the Latin editorial team work?

On the U.S. Latin team, we have a small but mighty team of three people. We have balanced our skill sets and music expertise to make sure we are covering the most Latin genres as possible. Antonella [Bocaranda] handles pop and tropical music. DC [Daniel Calderon] has his ear to the ground in Los Angeles with all things música mexicana. We always make sure that everyone has a bit of say in editorial decisions so we don’t fall [victim to] bias. Almost all priority markets in [Latin America] have their own editors locally. We work closely with them almost every day to exchange music and create a strategy.

What’s a Latin trend you’re tracking?

We’re starting to see stronger local scenes. So we need to be communicating even more across countries to make sure we are aware of what’s happening.

What’s a common misconception about Spotify editors?

That everything is data-driven. That really takes away from the heart and soul we put into our playlists every day.

Cecelia WinterEditorial lead, pop

Cecelia Winter

Yuri Hasegawa

Winter got her start in the music curation business with Spring, an app founded by elite runners that gave music fans song recommendations based on how fast they wanted to work out. After working as YouTube’s pop editor, she joined Spotify’s editorial team in 2023.

Favorite Spotify playlist?

Pop Sauce.

How do you define “pop” music?

Pop, by its traditional definition, wouldn’t allow space for smaller artists, so we are really working to create spaces where artists who are making music that sounds pop — hook-driven and following a certain structure — can grow and find their audience. It’s hard to define, but you know it when you hear it. Pop music is not as tied to commercial success as it once was either. There’s top 40, which skews pop, but those metrics of success are not accessible to the vast majority of pop musicians. [With playlists] there is now an emerging mid-tier.

What is a market that tends to lead to pop trends that later emerge in the United States?

There’s a lot of interesting music coming out of the Nordics, and there are a lot of interesting stories where American or British artists who have trouble [breaking through] in their home market really explode in the Nordics first. We saw that with Benson Boone. Our editor in the Nordics flagged him really early on.

This story appears in the April 19, 2025, issue of Billboard.

French streaming service Deezer reported in a company blog post on Wednesday (April 16) that it is now receiving over 20,000 fully AI-generated tracks on a daily basis, amounting to 18% of their daily uploaded content — nearly double what it reported in January 2025.
Back in January, Deezer launched a new AI detection tool to try to balance the interests of human creators and the rapidly growing number of AI-generated tracks uploaded to the service. At the time of the tool’s launch, Deezer said it had discovered that roughly 10,000 fully AI-generated tracks were being uploaded to the platform every day. Instead of banning these fully AI-generated tracks, Deezer instead uses its AI detection tool to remove them from its recommendation algorithm and editorial playlisting — meaning users can still find AI-generated music if they choose to, though it won’t be promoted to them.

This tool might even be underestimating the number of AI tracks on Deezer. At the time of its launch, Deezer noted that the tool can detect fully AI-generated music from certain models. This includes Suno and Udio, two of the most popular AI music models on the market today, “with the possibility to add on detection capabilities for practically any other similar tool as long as there’s access to relevant data examples,” as they put it. Still, it’s possible there’s more AI-generated music out there than the tool can currently catch.

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Deezer’s tool also does not detect or penalize partially AI-generated works, which likely make up a significant portion of AI-inflected songs today. According to guidance from the U.S. Copyright Office, as long as “a human author has determined sufficient expressive elements,” an AI-assisted work can be eligible for copyright protection.

Deezer is one of the first streaming services to create a policy against fully AI-generated songs, and the first to report how often they’re seeing them uploaded to the service. As Billboard reported in February, most DSPs do not have AI-specific policies, with SoundCloud the only other streamer that has publicly stated that it penalizes AI music. Its policy is to “prohibit the monetization of songs and content that are exclusively generated through AI, encouraging creators to use AI as a tool rather than a replacement of human creation.”

Still, some other streaming services have taken steps to ensure some of the negative impacts of AI are policed, even though their policies aren’t specific to AI. For example, Spotify YouTube Music and others have created procedures for users to report impersonations of likenesses and voices, a major risk posed by (but not unique to) AI. Spotify also screens for users who spam the platform with too many uploads at once, a tactic used by bad actors who are trying to earn extra streaming royalties. This is often done by deploying quickly made AI-generated tracks, though that is not always the case.

“AI generated content continues to flood streaming platforms like Deezer, and we see no sign of it slowing down,” said Aurelien Herault, chief innovation officer at Deezer, in a statement. “Generative AI has the potential to positively impact music creation and consumption, but we need to approach the development with responsibility and care in order to safeguard the rights and revenues of artists and songwriters, while maintaining transparency for the fans. Thanks to our cutting-edge tool we are already removing fully AI generated content from the algorithmic recommendations.”