A new report from French streaming platform Deezer reveals that about 18 % of all songs uploaded to its catalogue each day are now fully AI-generated—roughly 20,000 tracks daily, nearly double the figure it quoted four months ago. Deezer’s chief of innovation, Aurélien Hérault, warned that “AI-generated content continues to flood streaming platforms … and we see no sign of it slowing down.”
Why it matters
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Revenue dilution. More AI tracks can lead to smaller per-stream payouts for human artists, a long-standing concern echoed by global stars such as Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj.
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Copyright battles. Suno and Udio—two popular AI music tools—are already being sued by the majors for allegedly training on copyrighted recordings without permission. Deezer says it is using an in-house detection tool to keep such outputs out of algorithmic recommendations.
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Opportunity gap for Africa. A BBC Africa feature last November argued that African musicians risk further marginalisation if AI systems continue to rely on Western training data that does not understand local genres or languages. Yet the same article quotes Josplay founder Emmanuel Ogala, who sees AI as a way to catalogue Africa’s “rich and understudied” sonic heritage.
Voices from Ghana
“If 20 % of what’s hitting platforms is AI, Ghanaian creators must double down on distinctive production values—live percussion, local languages—so recommendation engines can still spot and surface our work.”
— Brenya, Accra-based highlife/rock artist experimenting with AI stem-separation tools
“Detection filters are useful, but they won’t fix unfair splits. We need clearer metadata standards so Ghanaian rights-holders are credited when AI models sample traditional rhythms.”
— Adwoa Nyarko, IP lawyer and lecturer, University of Ghana
What you can do
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Audit your catalogue: Make sure ISRCs, writer splits, and genre tags are complete; detection tools rely on accurate metadata.
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Experiment safely: Try ethical AI plugins (e.g., loudness-matching or genre-agnostic mastering) that publish their training sources.
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Join the debate: Head to our Community Forum and share how AI uploads are affecting your royalty statements.
Stay tuned to AIforMusic.org/news for more updates on how policy, platforms, and technology are reshaping the music landscape in Ghana and across Africa.