Music sector cracks down on streaming fraud

By the Editorial Team · Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Major music companies and distributors have introduced new guidelines to combat AI-generated streaming fraud, which inflates royalties and harms legitimate artists. These measures include stricter verification processes and increased collaboration to prevent fraudulent AI content from reaching streaming platforms and ensure fair compensation for creators.

Music companies and distributors have introduced a new set of guidelines aimed at combating the growing problem of artificial intelligence-generated music being used to commit streaming fraud, a practice that diverts royalties away from legitimate artists. Industry leaders estimate that nearly 10 percent of all music streams are now fraudulent, with a significant portion generated by AI.

Streaming fraud typically involves creating vast numbers of tracks using simple prompts and then utilizing networks of automated bot accounts to repeatedly stream these songs. This inflates royalty payments to the owner of the fraudulent content while reducing the total revenue available for genuine artists. According to French streaming platform Deezer, more than half of the new music uploaded in July was AI-generated, amounting to around 90,000 tracks per month. Deezer also reported that in the previous year, up to 85 percent of streams for fully AI-generated tracks were found to be fraudulent.

The newly formed guidelines, agreed upon by major music distributors under the auspices of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), seek to prevent fraudulent AI-generated music from reaching streaming services. Companies involved in the effort include Sony Music, Universal Music, Virgin Music, Absolute Label Services, Revelator, Warner Music, FUGA, and The Orchard, among others.

Victoria Oakley, CEO of the IFPI, emphasized the impact of streaming fraud on the music ecosystem: “Streaming fraud misleads fans and deprives legitimate artists and songwriters of income that should rightfully flow to them. This is theft, plain and simple.”

Under the new standards, distributors will enhance their procedures for verifying rights ownership and customer identities before allowing content to be uploaded. They will also increase scrutiny of content for signs of infringement, fraudulent activities, and risks associated with AI-generated music. Repeat offenders will face sanctions, and information sharing among distributors and labels will be improved to better identify and mitigate fraud.

The initiative expands on the End Streaming Fraud campaign previously launched by the IFPI and its partners to raise awareness of these issues. Some streaming services, including Deezer, have already begun implementing measures to address AI-driven streaming fraud independently.

The industry is encouraging other digital service providers and music distributors to join the Streaming Integrity Initiative to establish a unified front against fraudulent streaming practices and to protect the interests of authentic artists worldwide.

This article was reported by synthesizing coverage from multiple independent news outlets to present a balanced, unbiased account. Read about our editorial standards. Spotted an error? Let us know.