Could You Tell The Difference?

It is easy to get fatigued with all of the coverage about music and AI. And that is precisely why we need to keep talking about it. The moment that people who love something get bored with fighting for it, it will never be what it once was.

Deezer and IPSOS released a report, and the headline had us reeling.

97% of people can’t tell the difference between fully AI-generated and human-made music, and I bet we’d like to think we would be in the 3% that could, but the chances are we couldn’t.

Every day, 50,000 fully AI-generated tracks are uploaded to Deezer. This accounts for 34% of all daily deliveries.

More than half of the respondents to the survey were uncomfortable with not being able to distinguish between the two, and perhaps you’d feel uneasy too. Deezer has taken steps that have been in effect for some time, making it the only platform to label music entirely generated by AI. Nice, but you can’t escape it elsewhere.

However, there is a glimmer of hope: 45% of respondents would completely filter out AI-generated music from music streaming platforms.

Something worth chewing on?

40% of people in the survey would skip without listening to AI-generated music, but since most of it on other platforms and out in the world isn’t labeled, you’d have to be in the 3% of those people who recognize AI music to be able to skip it.

We’d end up listening by accident.

Unless you are with Deezer (or an indie streaming service), which removes AI-generated music from editorial playlists to ensure they don’t dilute the royalty pool. And have it labeled, so you can choose.

What if getting angry or irritated by AI-generated music is the same as some 'older’ generations getting annoyed and calling more modern music crap? We have probably all had a ‘what the hell is this?’ moment when we are listening to music.

Rock, Rap, Jazz, Blues all went through some hard times to get to where they are now.

Maybe we are simply running the same playbook, reacting with outrage, dismissing it outright, and perhaps some moral panic in there as well.

The difference, though, is that AI music hasn’t performed in sticky-floored bars to a crowd consisting of their mom and the bartender for the night. They haven’t felt or experienced whatever emotion it is they are singing about.

But maybe the music is good, if we can’t tell the difference, how can we be annoyed at it? Perhaps AI-generated music is the new art form.

The beauty of your favorite song is that the lyrics were probably penned on a napkin by a human. A group of humans thought up the cords, the structure, the breaks, and the drops. What if the outrage isn’t about how the music sounds or the lyrics, but it is just the idea that something so human has become seemingly replaceable?

Let’s bring it into the future a little bit. What if your favorite artists are AI? What does a live show look like? Are you buying vinyl or cassettes (which are making a comeback) of it? Would you drop $60 on a t-shirt for an AI-generated artist/band/album?

Does the connection to the band or artists survive if the music is generated from some keyboard taps and a good prompt?

And then, swiftly, to the next and final question: Are we calling the people who prompt the AI-generated music musicians?

The Grammy Nominations are sweeping social media, so we’ve joined in and made our own predictions. You can check them out on our Instagram: SongsBrew Insta.

Lily Allen is earning more from feet pictures than the massive 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify (we knew they were bad payers, but ouch). We’ll stream West End Girl on repeat for the next couple of weeks.

Amazon Music pulled a blinder this week and launched a feature that everyone should’ve already had. Fan Groups. Creating dedicated communities for the artists they love. It’s available in Canada, with US and international launches scheduled for early 2026.

Nature is now an official artist and gets royalties. You might’ve caught wind of this earlier in the year with Hozier’s rerelease of Like Real People Do, which features nature sounds, and 50% of the royalties go towards the Sounds Right initiative.

Spotify is being sued (again) over payola in their Discovery Mode.

Here’s what we are listening to this week (no Spotify links this week): Ravyn Lenae Love Me Not (YouTube), Intermission Party Programme Modern Desires (Nina).

For analog lovers, check out Cassette Club and Third Man Records Vinyl Vault Subscriptions. (not sponsored, just cool).

Until next time,