Discover what Deezer’s latest survey reveals about how listeners really feel about AI-generated music and why transparency and fairness matter more than ever.

Deezer, together with research firm Ipsos, has released a new survey revealing concerns among listeners about the rise of fully AI-generated music. Conducted across eight countries with 9,000 participants, the study shows that while the technology behind AI-produced songs is advancing rapidly, the public increasingly demands clarity about what they are listening to, and fairness for the artists behind the music.

In a blind listening test embedded in the study, an overwhelming 97 % of respondents could not reliably tell whether a track was created by humans or entirely by artificial intelligence. That high rate of misidentification left more than half of listeners feeling uneasy about the situation. Many respondents noted they felt uncomfortable not knowing whether the music they enjoyed was human-made or synthetic. The implications of that are significant: music is, for many listeners, not just background; it is a human expression, a creative conversation, and when the line between what is human and what is machine-made vanishes, the trust in that expression can erode.

A large majority of those polled, around 80 %, agreed that music that is 100 % AI-generated should be clearly labelled as such, giving listeners the right to choose. Furthermore, roughly three-quarters of streaming users said they would like their service to indicate when AI-generated tracks are being recommended. Many also expressed concern about the placement of AI-generated songs in the same charts alongside human-made music, and whether the artists behind music used as training data for AI models are being treated fairly.

That concern for fairness extended beyond the act of listening. About 65 % said that AI systems should not be allowed to train on copyrighted material without consent from the original creators, and 70 % believed that fully AI-generated music threatens the livelihood of current and future musicians. The public question here is twofold: as AI-driven content proliferates, how do we ensure creative artists are not displaced, and how should royalty flows be adapted so that creators remain part of the chain of value?

Deezer, which reported that more than 30,000 fully AI-generated tracks are being uploaded daily to its platform and that such content now accounts for over a third of daily music deliveries, is responding with concrete measures. The company has introduced a detection tool to identify songs created entirely by AI, and it is the only major streaming player so far to implement visible tagging of tracks that are 100 % AI‐generated. These tracks are, according to Deezer’s policy, removed from algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists, in an effort to protect the listener experience and preserve the integrity of human creativity in music.

For the music industry at large, the survey serves as a wake-up call. It shows the importance of transparency, listeners want to know when a track is AI-generated, and it highlights the pressing need for fair treatment of artists, both in terms of rights and compensation. As generative-AI tools become more powerful and accessible, and as human and machine-made music become increasingly indistinguishable, platforms, creators and rights-holders must find ways to make ethics, clarity and fairness central to the music ecosystem.

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