A new global survey has revealed that nearly all listeners are unable to distinguish between songs created by artificial intelligence and those composed by humans, underscoring how quickly AI-generated music has blurred the line between technology and artistry.

According to research conducted by polling firm Ipsos for France-based music streaming platform Deezer, 9,000 participants were asked to identify which of three clips – two made by AI and one by a human – were real.

Deezer said that “ninety-seven percent could not distinguish between music entirely generated by AI and human-created music.”

The findings come amid a surge in the popularity of AI-powered tracks, including a country song featuring an artificially generated male voice that this week topped the US charts for the first time.

‘Walk My Walk’ by Breaking Rust – an act widely reported to be backed by generative AI technology – reached number one on Billboard’s country digital song sales chart, according to data released on Monday.

Listeners uneasy about AI’s rise

More than half of the respondents admitted feeling uncomfortable about their inability to tell AI and human compositions apart. When asked about AI’s broader impact, 51% said they believed the technology would result in a flood of lower-quality music on streaming platforms, while nearly two-thirds feared it could stifle creativity.

“The survey results clearly show that people care about music and want to know if they're listening to AI or human-made tracks or not,” said Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier.

AI tracks surge on streaming platforms

Deezer said it has witnessed an exponential rise in AI-generated uploads over the past year – and listeners appear to be embracing them. In January, about one in ten songs streamed daily on the platform were AI-created. By October, that figure had soared to more than one in three, totalling around 40,000 AI songs streamed per day.

Eighty percent of respondents said they wanted music generated entirely by AI to be clearly labelled. Deezer remains the only major streaming platform that systematically flags fully AI-generated content for its users.

Industry response

The growing presence of AI in music first grabbed headlines in June when the virtual band The Velvet Sundown went viral on Spotify. The group later confirmed that its songs – including one that has been streamed more than three million times – were fully AI-generated.

Following the incident, Spotify said it would urge artists and labels to adopt a voluntary code of conduct requiring disclosure of AI use in music production.

The Ipsos survey was carried out from October 6 to 10 across eight countries – Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States.

(With inputs from AFP)