State Champ Radio tech
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NurPhoto / Cloudflare
Another day, another massive service outage affected the internet. This time, it was the networking company Cloudflare.
Millions of internet users woke up to find their favorite websites, including X, ChatGPT, and even the website-tracking site DownDetector, not working due to a massive outage at Cloudflare, a company that provides DDoS protection and internet content delivery services.
Instead of the standard web page, internet users were greeted by a page telling them, “Please unblock challenges.cloudflare.com to proceed.”
Our website was also affected by the outage.
Around 9:42 am, Cloudflare issued an update on its status page claiming, “A fix has been implemented and we believe the incident is now resolved. We are continuing to monitor for errors to ensure all services are back to normal.”
Cloudflare’s CTO Says The Outage Was Not The Result of An Attack
With any major service outage lately, many wondered if it was the result of an attack, but Cloudflare’s CTO, Dane Knect, shut that down in a statement on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
“I won’t mince words: earlier today we failed our customers and the broader Internet when a problem in @Cloudflare network impacted large amounts of traffic that rely on us,” Knecht wrote.
He continued, “A latent bug in a service underpinning our bot mitigation capability started to crash after a routine configuration change we made. That cascaded into a broad degradation to our network and other services. This was not an attack.”
The Verge reports that the outage affected online services such as Indeed, Grindr, Uber, Canva, Spotify, NJ Transit, League of Legends, and Archive of Our Own. Websites like Axios, Politico, and The Information were also down.
The Cloudflare outage followed the Amazon Web Services outage that brought the internet to a standstill less than a month ago.
You can see more reactions to Cloudflare failing its customers below.
Trending on Billboard
Paul McCartney will contribute a ‘silent’ track to a compilation album that is protesting the U.K. government’s recent changes to copyright law.
The LP Is This What We Want? was first released digitally in February and was co-signed by over a thousand U.K. artists. The LP runs for 47 minutes, and features the silence of an empty recording studio in order to highlight the need for human musicians in the age of artificial intelligence. The album’s track listing spells out the message: “The British government must not legalize music theft to benefit AI companies.”
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Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, Billy Ocean, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, and more were all credited as ‘co-writers’ of the LP. Upon release, it reached No. 38 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart.
McCartney’s contribution will appear as a bonus track to the physical edition of the LP, which will be released on Dec. 8 via record label The state51 Conspiracy. The vinyl is available for pre-order here, with all profits from sales to be donated to the musicians’ charity Help Musicians.
It’s not the first time that McCartney has protested against the U.K. government’s controversial approach to copyright law in the era of artificial intelligence. In May, McCartney was among 400 British musicians alongside Elton John, Dua Lipa, and Coldplay, to sign an open letter calling on U.K. prime minister Sir Keir Starmer to update copyright laws to protect their work from AI training models. They were backed by industry heavyweights Sir Lucian Grainge (Universal Music Group CEO), Jason Iley MBE (Sony Music UK CEO), and Dickon Stainer (Universal Music UK CEO) who also signed the letter.
The U.K. government proposed an ‘opt out’ approach for rightsholders in relation to their work being used to train artificial intelligence models. Critics say that the burden should not fall on artists to approve or deny tech companies the use their material, and that ‘opt out’ models are unenforceable.
During the summer, the U.K. government was involved in a ‘ping pong’ debacle whereby amendments to the Data (Use and Access) Bill proposed by the House of Lords were rejected five times. The amendments would have given rightsholders visibility over when their work was being used against their wishes by AI companies. The bill eventually passed and received Royal Assent in late June, and is expected to be be phased into law by mid-2026.
Ed Newton-Rex, the organizer of the album, said: “The government must commit to not handing the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies for free. Doing so would be hugely damaging to our world-leading creative industries, and is totally unnecessary, only benefiting overseas tech giants. It should listen to Paul McCartney and the 1,000 other musicians who took part in this album, and resist calls to legalize music theft from the big tech lobby.”
Trending on Billboard
Just because an AI-generated track makes— or even tops — a Billboard chart doesn’t mean it’s very popular.
Take, for example, Breaking Rust, an AI-assisted artist that attracted global attention for reaching No. 1 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart. Breaking Rust’s track “Walk My Walk” amassed approximately 3,000 track downloads in the week ending Nov. 6, according to Luminate. “Don’t Tread on Me” by Cain Walker, another AI-assisted country artist, is currently at No. 3 after selling approximately 2,000 downloads in that same week. That’s all it takes to top a genre download chart these days.
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The digital download is a relic of an era when iTunes ruled the music industry and streaming was in its infancy. Over the years, as consumers shifted to subscription streaming platforms, downloads have all but disappeared from the landscape. In 2024, downloads accounted for $329 million, according to the RIAA, approximately 2% of U.S. recorded music revenue. That’s down 86% from 2015, when downloads generated $2.3 billion and represented 34% of the U.S. market. Revenue from subscription streaming platforms, which now play a major role in the most well-known charts, climbed 860% to $11.7 billion over the same time span.
Pop songs put up much better numbers. As Billboard noted in an article on country executives’ reactions to Breaking Rust and Walker, the top track on the all-genre Digital Song Sales chart, Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia,” sold 29,000 copies. But even the most popular pop download doesn’t do the numbers seen just a decade ago. The No. 1 track in the same first week in November 2015, “Hello” by Adele, sold a whopping 636,000 units.
To put Breaking Rust and Walker’s popularity into a better context, it helps to know where they rank amongst their human peers. For the week ended Nov. 6, Breaking Rust was ranked No. 228 among country artists in terms of equivalent album units (EAUs, which combine streams and sales into a single metric). No. 1 country artist Morgan Wallen had 113 times more EAUs and 227 times more EAUs than Walker, who was No. 359. It would take 13 Breaking Rusts and 25 Walkers to equal the No. 18 artist, Bailey Zimmerman.
Billboard
The most successful AI artist is currently Xania Monet. Her creator, Telisha Jones, writes the lyrics and uses an AI platform to create the music. Monet has been on Billboard charts such as R&B Digital Song Sales, Hot Gospel Songs and Emerging Artists. But among artists of all genres, Monet ranked only No. 927 in terms of EAUs in the week ended Nov. 6, about equal to Cyndi Lauper and French Montana — artists who, unlike Monet, aren’t currently being promoted to terrestrial radio and attracting worldwide fascination.
To be sure, many human artists would love to have the sales and streaming numbers of these AI-assisted artists. Walker and Breaking Rust are No. 9 and No. 11, respectively, on the Emerging Artists chart, right behind country singer Alexandra Kay, who is signed to BMG-owned BBR Music Group and regularly sells out theaters around the country. In the U.S., Breaking Rust has 9.3 million streams to date, while Walker has 1 million, according to Luminate — the kind of numbers achieved by developing artists backed by record labels and artist managers.
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But the AI artists attracting headlines and creating consternation within the music industry don’t have popularity to match the attention they’re getting. They are making noise mainly by getting onto download charts, which don’t reflect how most Americans consume music. Nor are they likely to have the longevity of other artists. Walker, ranked No. 359 amongst country artists, is just a few spots below country legend Hank Williams. But nobody is saying that Walker matches the popularity of Williams, an inductee into the Country Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
That’s not to say AI artists aren’t having an impact. They’re quickly growing in numbers, and it’s not difficult to imagine that they could soon gobble up much more market share.
Take the 10 AI-generated or AI-assisted artists mentioned in Billboard’s Nov. 4 article about AI artists who landed on the charts. The 10 artists mentioned in that article — including Juno Skye, Enlly Blue, Unbound Music, Ruby Darkrose and ChildPets Galore — have an average EAU in 2025 of approximately 7,200 units. That’s not much. But 1,000 of these AI artists, in aggregate, could have a legitimate impact: 1,000 artists at 7,200 units is 7.2 million units — equal to a 0.7% year-to-date U.S. market share. That’s on par with large independent record labels like Big Machine Label Group (0.78%), BMG (0.77%) and Secretly Distribution (0.75%). Two thousand AI artists with an average of 3,600 AEUs would have the same collective market share. Or 4,000 AI artists with an average of 1,800 AEUs.
An invasion of AI music may feel like a dystopian future to most people, but it’s a plausible scenario. A person reading about Xania Monet or Breaking Rust could experience the same spark of inspiration felt by teenagers seeing punk rock bands in the mid to late ‘70s. Punk grew quickly because starting a band required a passion for music, not musical expertise. When millions of people read about AI artists on the charts, some of them will have the same realization that kids had in the ‘70s: “If they can do it, why can’t I?”
Billboard determines if a charting title is AI or AI-assisted through checking the artists’ official pages, some of which say they are generated with the help of AI; cross-checking the songs using Deezer’s AI detection tool, which adds a flag to all AI-generated content on the platform; and reaching out to the creators themselves, among other methods.
Netflix / Netflix Game Night
Netflix has shifted its strategy for its gaming venture and is now meeting its subscribers where they are, in hopes of letting them play games on the streaming service.
It’s been four years since Netflix mightily stumbled into the gaming space, but the streaming giant hasn’t given up on its video game ambitions.
The streamer’s new strategy is to bring games to its millions of subscribers so they don’t have to download a separate app, making them playable in the Netflix app on your televisions and turning your smartphones into controllers.
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“Starting today (Thursday), you can play games on your TV, using your phone as a controller — no setup needed, it’s as easy as streaming your favorite shows,” said Alain Tascan, President of Games at Netflix. “You can now go from watching KPop Demon Hunters to playing Pictionary: Game Night without ever leaving Netflix. And for those who love to play anywhere and everywhere, we’re bringing even more games to your phone with our own special Netflix touch.”
You and your friends can play games like Dead Man’s Party: A Knives Out Game, LEGO Party!, Boggle Party, Party Crashers, Pictionary: Game Night, and Tetris Time Warp, allowing you to put on the ultimate game night.
Game Night’s other goal is to keep subscribers logged into the service longer while showcasing smartphone interaction, which the company plans to use for live television events like Star Search, a reboot of the classic television series hosted by Ed McMahon, coming to Netflix sometime next year.
So, are you excited to jump into Netflix Game Night? It definitely sounds like it has some legit staying power.
Trending on Billboard
Warner Music Group announced on Friday that it has promoted Leho Nigul to chief technology officer, effective Dec. 1, as part of a series of executive changes this week.
Nigul, previously senior vice president of engineering, will oversee WMG’s technology strategy, team, and product roadmap, reporting directly to CEO Robert Kyncl. He succeeds Ariel Bardin, who will step aside as president of technology after three years but remain through 2025 to ensure a smooth transition.
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Nigul joined WMG in 2023 and has led engineering teams across key initiatives, including global licensing, royalty management, fan engagement, and AI projects. His background includes senior roles at Instacart and more than 17 years at IBM, where he specialized in eCommerce and SaaS development.
“Leho’s deep knowledge and wide-ranging experience as a leader, engineer, and innovator make him ideally suited to take our team into the future and leverage AI for the benefit of our artists, songwriters and employees,” said WMG CEO Robert Kyncl.
Bardin’s tenure saw significant upgrades to WMG’s tech infrastructure, including new tools for artists and songwriters, streamlined global supply chains, and enhanced data systems. Kyncl praised Bardin for helping to “transform our company systems”and for “setting the foundation to rapidly scale WMG going forward.”
Nigul added that WMG’s approach to innovation creates “powerful, new opportunities for our artists, songwriters and teams.”
The leadership shift on the tech side comes amid a busy week for WMG, which also announced several high-profile appointments: Gregg Nadel was named president of A&R at Warner Records Group; Cris Lacy became chair and president of the rebranded Warner Records Nashville, continuing her role as one of the highest-ranking women in Nashville’s label ecosystem; and Atlantic Music Group tapped A&R veteran Jeremy Vuernick as executive vice president.
Trending on Billboard
Over her 20-plus-year career, Tracy Gardner has seen her fair share of technological disruptions in the music business. “I started right when illegal downloads took over,” she says of her entry into the industry as an intern at what was then Warner Bros. Records (now Warner Records).
As TikTok’s global head of music business development — a position she has held since February — Gardner is now running point for the biggest disruptor of the industry over the last five years. The Brooklyn Law graduate, whom ByteDance recruited in 2019 after six years in the legal affairs and business development departments at Warner Music Group, took over from Ole Obermann — whom she also worked with at WMG — when he departed for Apple Music.
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In her new role as the platform’s chief liaison with the music industry, Gardner oversees deals with labels, publishers and the TikTok commercial music library and works closely with the platform’s strategy, finance, artist services, product and ad sales teams.
Her promotion comes at a fitful moment for TikTok, as ByteDance and the Trump administration are reportedly finalizing a deal that would result in a consortium of U.S. investors acquiring a majority stake in the app. Gardner was not able to comment on that process or how it might affect her division. But in this interview — her first since assuming her current role — she asserts that nearly two years after Universal Music Group temporarily pulled its artists’ music from TikTok over a breakdown in licensing negotiations, and the social media platform shifted label licensing away from Merlin, which licenses digital companies on behalf of over 30,000 indie labels and distributors, “We’re in a great place with the music industry. It’s a dynamic partnership that, as TikTok evolves quickly, has an impact on how we’re looking at deals, how we work with partners and what they want to get from a partnership with us.”
At Warner, you were on the other side of the negotiating table with ByteDance. How did that experience affect how you conduct your job now?
Mainly, it was great to come from the perspective of being at a label and a rights holder. [TikTok] was still relatively new when I got there, and we had to build the infrastructure and collaborate with other teams at ByteDance. A lot of our music team came over from either other DSPs [digital service providers] or labels, so there was a very good base to help the product teams, who don’t have music experience, understand what these rights holders expect from tech partners and what their artists are looking for.
What did you learn from watching Ole Obermann?
Ole and I worked together at Warner. Often people in business development [at music companies] come from one of two paths: f inancial or legal backgrounds. I was fortunate that Ole came from a more numbers- based, financial background, whereas mine was legal. He forced me out of my comfort zone. I wanted to look at the term sheet, and he told me, “You have to focus on the numbers. The numbers don’t lie.” Then we both moved to TikTok, and he [built] a great infrastructure of how the team operates, how we present budgets and how we work with senior management.
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How have you tailored your current role to your perspective and experience?
Ole was overseeing both recorded music and publishing, while I was more in day-to-day operations on the recorded-music side working with artists. So when I took on this new job, I said, “Why don’t we apply the best practices we have for artists to songwriters?” One thing that we’re particularly proud of is the songwriter feature we launched earlier this year [enabling songwriters to tag songs they’ve written in the music tab of their account]. The songwriters are really enjoying being able to step out from behind the curtain and get the acknowledgment that they deserve. We plan to roll that out more broadly.
TikTok increasingly has prioritized e-commerce with the TikTok Shop. How is your team working with artists there?
We are working with the e-commerce teams at the labels as well as our own. One thing we’re seeing is old vinyl sells. Even though people don’t have record players, they view these albums as collectibles. We also see great success when an artist does a livestream. We did one with Lizzo that was quite successful and one with the Jonas Brothers.
TikTok has hosted a number of intimate pop-up events recently for artists’ top fans. Ones with Miley Cyrus and Ed Sheeran come to mind immediately. This is an interesting move to me because you are a social media platform. You want to engage fans online. Why did you want to take people off their phones and get them outside with artists?
Music discovery starts on TikTok — discovery, promotion and fandom grows here, and we view it as a flywheel. After discovering a song, we then help to promote it with some of the campaigns that we do, then we tie that to the “Add to Music App” function so that you can listen on your streaming service. We’re see that what we do moves the needle on streaming, which then leads to charts, which then leads to increased fandom.
We thought that there would be a great opportunity to bring this to real life, to invite the fans that have the greatest engagement with an artist on TikTok to come see the artist in person, even if it does mean going off the platform for a bit. What I thought was beautiful about the Miley event at Chateau Marmont, was that the people there were so impassioned that they started posting so much about it. Even though I wasn’t there, they made me feel like I’d actually experienced it. Right now, we’re finding a way to create joyful intimate moments and creating them in a way that encourages fans to film and to bring them back onto TikTok.
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After a song goes viral on TikTok, it often ends up doing really well on streaming services. For a while, TikTok was building its own streaming service, TikTok Music. Why was it shut down last year?
It was just a decision of priorities. We were trying to grow it for quite some time, and the decision was made: “You know what? Out of all the things we’re doing, this is not succeeding at the level we want. Let’s focus on other areas.” It was an awesome service and it really tied in all the great parts of TikTok, but it was just a decision by management.
TikTok recently let go about 15 people from the U.S. and Latin American music teams, and layoffs are forthcoming in the United Kingdom. Some are interpreting this as a sign that the company is backing away from its partnerships with the music business.
As so many other big companies have recently done — Amazon announced a big round of layoffs, for instance — organizational changes are due to changes in structural needs. Companies can grow very quickly and then must reassess what’s best for them. There is definitely no change in the priority around artist services and artist relations. For us, it’s business as usual.
How are you reassuring the music industry that you remain committed to the partnerships and plans you already made?
We’re telling them it’s business as usual, and our valued industry partners remain the highest priority. We just want to focus more on the core priorities for artists and songwriters to help drive the value on the platform.
How is TikTok ensuring artists have safeguards against artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes?
We ask that users tag anything that’s AI-created. Aside from that, I don’t think the industry has a quick solution right now to identify those and take them down. If someone notifies us, our trust and safety team will take them down if needed. But it is a very interesting time right now.
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AI-generated songs have appeared on the TikTok and Billboard charts. Are you pursuing any policies that would bar AI music on your platform and charts?
It’s uncharted territory. Even with U.S. Copyright Office guidance that works must have sufficient human contribution to be protected, what does that mean? There’s such a wide span from a song being totally created by AI to one that’s created by a human with just one or two AI contributions. How do we decide when it’s such a gray zone? So I don’t think we’ve made a decision on that yet, and I don’t think a lot of the DSPs have either.
If AI-generated music starts performing well on TikTok, could it diminish the leverage rights holders have in negotiations with you?
I don’t think it would have any impact. We’re all aware that AI music is out there, and some exceptions have risen on the charts, but it would not at all impact the value that we see in our partners and how our deals with them are structured.
What are some best practices for artists seeking to gain an audience on TikTok?
The beauty of it is that any song has a chance to go viral. It just depends on how the billions of people on the platform react to the song. Oftentimes, I’m asked, “Do you have to be really leaned in?” It depends. A great example is Connie Francis. Her song “Pretty Little Baby” blew up this year. She wasn’t on the platform at the time. Eventually she did get on, which was great, but this music resonated [on its own].
Apple / Digital ID
Apple is always looking for ways to make life easier through your iPhone, of course. The company’s latest idea, Digital IDs, isn’t going over as well as Apple hoped.
Apple has officially rolled out a Digital IDs feature that will allow users to create and add an ID to their Apple Wallet using their US passport.
The tech giant says the Digital ID acceptance will “roll out first” at TSA checkpoints for domestic travel in over 250 airports.
Apple says Digital ID can serve as an alternative for travelers who have yet to upgrade to a Real ID, and you can present it at TSA checkpoints using your iPhone or Apple Watch.
However, you’ll still need to hold on to your passport for international travel, as a Digital ID cannot be used for traveling abroad or for border crossings.
Apple Has Already Pushed The Idea of Putting Your ID on Your Smartphone
The Digital ID isn’t the first time Apple has toyed around with the IDs. Apple is already allowing users in 12 states, including Puerto Rico, to store their driver’s licenses/IDs, but Digital ID gives those outside those states an alternative to Real ID.
Social Media Is Skeptical
The announcement of the Digital ID isn’t going over well with everyone, sparking major privacy concerns, especially among those who already feel “big brother” is watching them through their phones.
“Well, Apple just rolled out “Digital ID.” The surrender of privacy is about to hit warp speed. This is step one of your digital leash, gift-wrapped as convenience. Once it’s “normalized,” it’s irreversible. Then it’s “optional.” Until it’s not,” one post on X, formerly Twitter, read.
Others are stressing that this is even more reason for you not to hand over your smartphones to law enforcement.
Well, it’s entirely up to you whether you want to participate in this feature. We can recall a time when it was frowned upon to put your credit cards in your phone, but now tap-to-pay is one of the most widely used features on smartphones and smartwatches.
It’s entirely plausible that Digital IDs will become popular over time.
Until then, you can see more reactions below.
Trending on Billboard
Songscription, a startup that uses AI to turn recorded music into musical notation, has raised $5 million in a round led by previous investor Reach Capital. Additional backers in the round include Emerge Capital, 10x Founders, Dent Capital, and guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, an advisor to the company whose résumé includes an eight-year stint with Guns N’ Roses.
The San Francisco-based company’s technology can turn a recording into sheet music, tablature or interactive piano roll. The cloud-based platform accepts multiple audio formats such as MP3, WAV, MP4, MIDI files and YouTube links. After using AI to analyze the audio, Songscription can output printable sheet music or MIDI, MusicXML or Guitar Pro file formats. Users can also download and edit their transcriptions directly within the Songscription platform. The company claims to have drawn over 150,000 users from over 150 countries.
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The funding will be used to expand Songscription’s available instruments and notation outputs, among other needs. The platform currently supports piano, violin, flute, guitar, bass guitar and trumpet. Ultimately, the company says it wants to become a necessary composition tool that captures performances and renders the music as notation and MIDI to enable easy recreation.
Thal predicts that Songscription “will change musicians’ lives” by providing time-saving assistance to both music teachers and players. “Even us professionals can use it to save hours of time trying to recall what we played on albums we recorded years ago,” he said in a statement. “It’s a real game changer.”
While some AI companies are engaged in legal battles with music rights holders, Songscription intends to be a friend, not foe, of the music industry. “For Songscription, ethics are top of mind, and we are working closely to sign deals with more industry players, including major publishers, to ensure their service honors all stakeholders,” advisor Elizabeth Moody, a partner at Granderson Des Rochers, said in a statement.
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To train its model, Songscription has used material from the public domain and partnerships with artists and businesses. CEO Andrew Carlins told Billboard that Songscription’s need for licensing deals “is still a gray area…but because empowering artists is core to our mission, we have decided to proactively approach the publishers to sign deals that will include rights for both the input and output regardless of where the legal line is drawn,” he said.
Trending on Billboard
Just in time for its 25th anniversary, Discogs launches a new mobile app that its creators anticipate will have a downward effect on your bank balance.
Today, Nov. 13, the music discovery and record collecting platform rolls out its updated app, with a range of new features. Among them, users can check their own inventory; organize and add titles to their Wantlist on the go; see what their records are worth with “real, recent data”; use a camera to scan barcodes; see what’s trending; and get instant notifications when a particular record is listed for sale, all from their devices.
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According to reps, the new layout and “Explore” homepage surfaces trending records, top sellers, and Discogs editorial features. “With real-time pricing data, barcode scanning, and instant notifications when a record you want is listed for sale,” reads a statement, “collectors can now track and expand their collections in real time.”
The beta release has had positive results, with over 500,000 users updated to the new iOS version within the first month, and weekly usage lifting 5-10% with the iOS app alone, a presser states.
“This isn’t just an update. It’s an upgrade,” states Kevin Lewandowski, Discogs’ founder and CEO. “The new app puts the power of Discogs in your hands like never before.”
According to figures released earlier this year, Discogs members cataloged over 105.7 million pieces of music in 2024 — an average of 2 million vinyl albums, CDs, tapes, 8-tracks and any other catalogable format you can think of per week.
Since its inception, more than 830 million items have been cataloged, with average collections — which are predominantly vinyl — hovering around 195 items per user, the company said.
Discogs, of course, is an important player in the space of buying and selling physical music collections, formats that are on the rise. The IFPI reports that vinyl has been on an upswing, on a global basis, for 18 consecutive years.
In early 2024, the company told Billboard that it wants to boost its online database to 25 million listings by November 2025, its 25th anniversary.
Discogs’ App is available now in the App Store and Google Play.
Trending on Billboard
French streaming service Deezer reported on Wednesday (Nov. 12) that roughly 50,000 songs delivered to the platform daily are now fully AI-generated, in what amounts to the company’s fourth report on the surge of AI-generated content on its service this year.
Along with that statistic, Deezer also released the findings of a new survey about AI’s use in the music industry, including the stat that 97% of people can’t tell the difference between human-made and fully AI-generated musical works.
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According to Deezer’s proprietary AI detection tool — which only searches for fully AI-generated songs from select popular models, including Suno and Udio — the number of fully AI-generated songs delivered daily has been rapidly increasing throughout 2025. In January, it reported that the figure was 10,000 songs a day; in April, it noted the figure was 20,000 songs daily; and in September, it reported the number had risen to 30,000 songs daily.
In an interview with Billboard about the company’s AI research in May, Aurelien Herault, Deezer’s chief innovation officer, and Manuel Moussallam, its director of research, said that part of the reason why they were finding a growing number of fully-AI generated songs was simply that their “data got better” — as well as the fact that the overall volume of fully AI-generated songs had increased as more users adopted AI tools like Suno and Udio.
Beyond flagging AI use, Deezer has taken a proactive approach to regulating this content on its platform. To create transparency, Deezer adds a tag to any fully AI-generated work it detects on the platform, while removing it from algorithmic and editorial recommendations and playlists.
To continue its research into the emerging technology and its impact on the music business, Deezer also produced a new survey on the perceptions and attitudes around AI music. The study was executed by Ipsos with a total of 9,000 participants across eight countries — the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Japan. Below, you can check out the study’s top findings.
General perceptions about AI:
98% have at least heard of AI
72% used AI at least a few times
55% of the respondents place curiosity as one of their first overall sentiments towards AI
19% place trust among their first feelings towards this new tool
Music discovery creation with AI:
46% think that AI can help them discover more music they like
51% think that AI will play a significant part in music creation in the next 10 years
51% think that AI will lead to the creation of more low-quality, generic-sounding music on streaming platforms
64% believe that AI could lead to a loss of creativity in music production
Recognition and consumption of AI-generated music:
97% couldn’t tell the difference between fully AI-generated music and human-made music in a blind test with two AI songs and one real song
52% felt uncomfortable with not being able to tell the difference between AI and human-made music
66% of music streaming users say they would listen to 100% AI-generated music at least once, out of curiosity
45% of music streaming users would like to filter out 100% AI-generated music from their music streaming platform
40% of music streaming users say that they would skip without listening to 100% AI-music if they came across it
Transparency:
80% agree that 100% AI-generated music should be clearly labeled to listeners
73% of music streaming users would like to know if a music streaming service is recommending 100% AI-generated music
52% of respondents feel that 100% AI-generated songs should not be included in charts alongside human-made songs on the main charts
Only 11% believe that 100% AI-generated music should be treated equally on charts
58% of music streaming users believe that their music streaming platform never recommended 100% AI-generated music to them, while 25% are uncertain
