Sony Music Asked Platforms to Remove 260,000 AI Deepfake Tracks in September

October 6 (IT Home) — The Financial Times (FT) published a post yesterday (5 October) reporting that Sony Music has asked digital platforms to remove more than 260,000 AI-generated tracks impersonating its artists.

In terms of numbers, the report says Sony Music Entertainment asked streaming platforms to take down more than 260,000 songs by the end of September — almost double the 135,000 at the end of March.

Sony says these tracks used generative AI deepfake technology to imitate its artists’ voices and likenesses without permission.

Dennis Kooker, president of global digital business at Sony Music, said fraudulent streams may account for 10% of all tracks on music streaming sites. Record label executives estimate that streaming fraud costs the industry as much as US$2.2 billion a year (about 14.77 billion yuan at current exchange rates).

The artists targeted by these deepfake tracks include contemporary and historical figures such as Adele, Britney Spears, Queen and Michael Jackson.

Sony describes the problem as “generative AI deepfake tracks imitating our artists’ voices and likenesses without permission,” and says the practice “is happening at scale, harming artists, misleading fans and undermining the ethical use of AI.”

The record company told the Financial Times: “We will continue to defend artists’ rights and we want platforms to act quickly to prevent the same content from reappearing. But this fight is getting harder and harder.”

The French streaming platform Deezer revealed this summer that an average of 90,000 AI-generated songs are uploaded to its platform every day, accounting for more than half of all new music. Deezer also found that, of the plays of songs generated entirely by AI last year, as many as 85% were fraudulent.