AI-generated music everywhere online. It’s bad and getting worse.
[This was my column for GlobalNews.ca. – AC]
In the pre-internet days, even a mega-sized record store stocked perhaps 100,000 titles of all eras and all genres. That is a quaint concept now, given that streaming music platforms now draw on a library of about 250 million songs, a number that used to increase by about 100,000 tracks a day as musicians — pro and amateur, good and bad — around the world sought to distribute their music.
Overwhelming, yes, but nothing compared to what’s happening today, thanks to AI.
Using tools such as Suno, Google Magenta, Loudly, Mubert, and perhaps a dozen other online sites, creating a new song is as easy as entering a few text prompts. Results are delivered within seconds. And an astounding number of these tracks are being uploaded to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and every other platform.
Deezer, the Paris-based streamer, appears to be watching the situation more closely than most. Back in January 2025, the company, which employs in-house AI-detection software, reported that 10,000 AI-generated tracks were being uploaded daily. By April, that number was 15,000. In September 2025, the company found that the number had increased to 30,000, which climbed to 50,000 by November. This year started with 60,000 AI uploads in January. The most recent figure is 75,000, which has surely already been eclipsed.
Again, that’s the number of AI-created songs per day. To put it another way, these tracks account for 44 per cent of all downloads to Deezer. Meanwhile, the number of human-created songs sits at around 95,500 per day, a figure that has barely budged over the last 15 months. The robots are gaining. Fast.
