Who’s Really Stealing From You?

I read a rather long article on Wired this morning (titled ‘A Billion Streams and No Fans: Inside a $10 Million Dollar AI Music Fraud Case”) The article reveals just how big a problem AI generated songs are, which is estimated to account for over 10% of streams. Add into that AI generated play system and you have a multi-billion dollar scam hosted by none other that your friendly neighborhood streaming sites. Given how much attention AI generative and LLM models are getting lately, it begs the question, who’s really stealing from you?

There is plenty of resistance and hate directed at “AI Slop,” especially fully generated AI music. But the real problem isn’t that these methods of creation exist — it’s that their presence in the pool siphons value from independent artists, while the majors are shielded by guaranteed payouts for access to their vast catalogues. Once again, it’s independents who get squeezed, because the fraud only stacks the odds further against them.

So, how is it, AI can generate songs out of whole cloth, but somehow streaming companies worth billions—and in the case of Apple, Amazon and Google, trillions—are somehow unable to accurately detect these often thinly veiled attempts at fraud? Not only do these companies engage in limited enforcement, when they do, their aim is sloppy, often punishing the innocent instead of the fraudsters. A failure that conveniently boosts their bottom line.

The Guardian reports that fraud detection systems often flag artists unfairly. Independent musicians have had tracks removed when surges in legitimate popularity were mistaken for “stream manipulation”—without transparent appeals to reverse the decisions.

For an indie act that finally lands on a viral playlist, a false flag can erase their biggest break overnight.

Deezer found that up to 70% of AI‑generated streams were fraudulent; however, their system sometimes punished innocent artists whose genuine uploads triggered similar patterns.

To make matters worse—and not so surprisingly—Spotify has been accused—by multiple investigations, including Liz Pelly’s The Ghosts in the Machine—of commissioning ‘ghost artists’: anonymized tracks produced by third parties, attributed to fake names, and seeded into major mood playlists like Deep Focus and Lo‑Fi Beats via an internal program called Perfect Fit Content (PFC).

When we evaluate Corporate bad actors, we need to evaluate motivations. Where it comes to streaming, everyone’s earnings are capped. The lion’s share goes to the Majors under guaranteed terms, the platform takes its cut, and the independents split what’s left. So, streaming of AI generated music doesn’t negatively affect their bottom line, and given that reality, they have little incentive to throw adequate resources towards truly fixing the problem. And if companies like Spotify are indeed posting their own generated music to compete for that 10% share, then they really have no incentive to develop an accurate and efficient policing system.

If it’s fraud for Mr. Smith (from the article) to make millions from streaming fully AI generated music with his AI listening bots, then it’s fraud for Spotify to engage in such practices too. They don’t need bots when they own the playlists — a power far more effective than any farm of fake listeners.

Even if the accusations of Spotify partaking in the fraud were to prove untrue, it’s nothing short of bad-faith negligence to police their system with broken automated tools, and it’s outrageous that there is no easy way to appeal false flags. In other words, they don’t care about you, they don’t care to pay you, and they will reward fraud so long as it helps them to make money. They may even engage in it themselves.

Meanwhile, millions of music creators who have no true shot of breaking even on these platforms keep loading up their songs to be heard by nobody. Because — in the immortal words of Lloyd Christmas — “so you’re telling me there’s a chance.”

AI isn’t stealing from you.
The distribution platforms are.

Enjoy! Mixerman

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