Sony Music is intensifying efforts to combat streaming fraud amid a rise in AI-generated songs that mimic established artists, including Harry Styles and Adele. By the end of September, Sony had requested the removal of more than 260,000 unauthorized tracks from digital platforms, nearly double the 135,000 takedown requests made by the end of March.

The company highlighted the growing prevalence of “generative AI deepfake tracks” that replicate artists’ voices and likenesses without permission. Sony described the issue as one that harms creators, deceives fans, and challenges ethical standards surrounding artificial intelligence in the music industry.

This surge in AI-generated content is part of a wider fraud problem affecting streaming services globally. Many of the tracks are produced in bulk using AI and designed to be played repeatedly by automated bots, inflating royalty payments to creators of the fraudulent streams and reducing revenue available to legitimate artists. Dennis Kooker, president of Sony Music’s Global Digital Business, estimated earlier this year that up to 10% of tracks across streaming platforms could be fraudulent, potentially costing the industry as much as $2.2 billion annually.

Sony has called on streaming platforms to act swiftly to remove infringing content and prevent its reappearance but acknowledged the challenge is growing more difficult. The French streaming service Deezer reported this summer that approximately 90,000 AI-generated songs were uploaded daily, representing over half of new music submissions. Deezer also found that as many as 85% of streams for entirely AI-produced tracks last year were identified as fake.

A recent study by the Sonic Intelligence Academy revealed that nearly 93% of tracks submitted to its registry had been created using the AI platform Suno, while over 75% of submitted AI songs were distributed via DistroKid. Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, a music-rights advocate and former senior adviser to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, warned that “AI streaming fraud is fast becoming an epidemic” and accused organized fraudsters of exploiting platforms like Suno and DistroKid to exploit artists.

Sony, along with Universal Music, has initiated legal action against AI music companies such as Suno, alleging unauthorized use of copyrighted recordings to train their music-generation systems. Suno has denied these claims, stating the accusations are “fundamentally flawed on both the facts and the law.” The dispute underscores a growing conflict over AI’s role and copyright infringement concerns in music creation and distribution.