ITHome News on 10/6: The Financial Times (FT) published a blog post yesterday (10/5),reporting that Sony Music has asked digital platforms to delete more than 260,000 AI-generated tracks impersonating its artists.
In terms of numbers, the report says Sony Music Entertainment asked streaming platforms to take down more than 260,000 (26万) songs by the end of September (9), a figure nearly twice the 135,000 (13.5万) at the end of March (3).
Sony said these tracks use generative AI deepfake technology to imitate the voices and likenesses of its artists without permission.
Dennis Kooker, President of Global Digital Business at Sony Music, said fraudulent streaming plays may account for 10% of the total tracks on music streaming sites. Record company executives estimate thatstreaming fraud costs the industry up to 2.2 billion US dollars a year (ITHome note: about 14.772 billion yuan at the current exchange rate).
The artists targeted by these deepfake tracks include contemporary and historical figures such as Adele, Britney Spears, Queen, and Michael Jackson.
Sony said the problem is that "generative AI deepfake tracks imitate the voices and likenesses of our artists without permission," and that this practice "is happening on a massive scale, harming artists, misleading fans, and undermining ethical uses of AI."
The record company told the Financial Times: "We will continue to defend artists' rights and expect platforms to act swiftly to prevent the same content from reappearing. But this fight is becoming increasingly difficult."
French streaming service Deezer disclosed this summer that an average of 90,000 AI-generated songs are uploaded to its platform every day, accounting for more than half of all new music. Deezer also found that last year, up to 85% of plays of fully AI-generated songs involved fraud.