Photo credit: Deezer
After Atlantic Equities recently downgraded Warner Music Group (NASDAQ: WMG) stock for “rapid development of AI-created music,” Access Industries’ Deezer is now taking steps to label tracks created with artificial intelligence.
The Paris-based streaming platform today announced its music identification plans in a brief communication emailed to DMN. In the first five months of 2023, the distribution of AI works has increased dramatically, with a significant number of titles (authorized and unauthorized) making their way to streaming services.
Predictably, the big three labels are fighting back this unprecedented influx of releases, fueled by a growing collection of AI music generators. For example, Universal Music Group kicked off 2023 by criticizing “bad players” in the industry, then partnered with Tidal and Deezer on streaming reform.
The Sony Music Entertainment boss has also targeted “low quality and meaningless volume” on streaming platforms, while the aforementioned Warner Music Group has admitted it’s experimenting “with other streaming models.”
In the face of those efforts — and the accompanying warnings about the potential of AI, as well as calls for tougher regulatory requirements — Deezer says it’s leading the way on the detection front “to protect the future of music streaming.”
According to Deezer – which was home to about 9.3 million paying users at the end of the first quarter – the initiative is primarily focused on “a suite of cutting-edge tools” designed to recognize AI music, which the streaming service then “plays” accordingly. mark”. While it appears that the campaign will extend to all tracks with artificial intelligence, Deezer is willing to initially focus on “songs with synthetic voices by existing artists”.
Additionally, Deezer isn’t shy about acknowledging that the classification system will lay the groundwork for “a compensation model that differentiates between different types of music creation.”
“Our goal is to weed out illegal and fraudulent content, increase transparency and develop a new compensation system that rewards professional artists for creating valuable content,” said Jeronimo Folgueira, CEO of Deezer. “That’s why we’ve embraced the discussion of a new, artist-centric model and are now also developing tools to detect AI-generated content.”
As for the rollout, it’s unclear exactly when these tools (which are expected to be based on Deezer’s “proprietary “radar” technology) will hit the market. In any case, it’s worth keeping an eye on the possible impact of the announcement on other streaming players. more than a few apparently unauthorized sound-like tracks still making waves on YouTube, for example, as many non-infringing AI works appear on Spotify and elsewhere.
When the market closed today, Deezer stock (DEEZR on Euronext) was trading at €2.24/$2.40 per share. The service began in June with the official launch of a meditation app called “Zen by Deezer” in France. Additionally, Universal Music Group has introduced AI as part of its own effort to capitalize on the digital relaxation market.