Spotify does (a little) housekeeping. The leader in music streaming has just removed tens of thousands of songs generated by artificial intelligence (AI) from its platform.
A few days ago, the Swedish giant removed from its playlist nearly 7% of the titles from the company Boomy. Launched two years ago, this American start-up allows anyone to create, in a few minutes, their own tubes, thanks to turnkey tools and artificial intelligence software. Users just have to choose a musical genre and the AI then composes the melody of the song for them. Apprentice rock stars only have to refine their title by adding instruments, adjusting the tempo, working on sound effects and possibly incorporating vocals. These songs can then be uploaded to platforms such as Deezer, Spotify or Apple Music and generate revenue when people listen to them. On its website, Boomy claims that its users have already created more than 14.5 million.
According to the Financial Times, it was Universal Music that sounded the alarm. The major detected abnormal activity around some titles created by Bommy and reported it to the main music streaming platforms. In this case, it is not the issue of copyright undermined by artificial intelligence that is upsetting. This topic had recently prompted Universal Music to request the removal of a rap track imitating, thanks to AI, the voices of artists Drake and The Weeknd. This time, it is rather a problem of manipulation of the eavesdroppers. The songs, withdrawn by Spotify, would have benefited from "fake streams", that is to say an artificial increase in the number of listens, in order to inflate the audience of a title and therefore its revenue.
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Avalanche of content
This is not a new phenomenon. "Artificial streaming is a long-standing industry-wide problem, which Spotify is working to eradicate across our entire service," the company told the Financial Times. Last January, an unprecedented study by the National Music Centre (NMC) indicated that this fraudulent practice concerned between 1 and 3% of France of listens.
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On the internet, proposals abound to buy fake streams. A thousand plays on Spotify can be changed from 4.50 euros. Some sites offer 1 million readings for 2500 euros... Since songwriting is now within everyone's reach thanks to AI, the avalanche of titles is likely to exacerbate the problem. Currently, 100,000 new music tracks are added every day on Spotify. Streaming platforms may take the threat very seriously, but as the amount of content increases, it will be harder to sort the wheat from the chaff.
The recent explosive development of generative AI, if left unchecked, will increase the flow of unwanted content onto platforms and create rights issues.
Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music
In late April, Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music, warned: "The recent explosive development of generative AI, if left unchecked, will increase the flow of unwanted content on platforms and create rights issues with respect to copyright law in the US and other countries. Daniel Ek, head of Spotify, agreed that creators and artists needed to be protected. But he also pointed to the positive side of this new technology, which "could potentially be huge for creativity. (...) I choose to look at the glass as being more half full than half empty."