YouTube Music starts labelling AI songs, as Deezer prepares an off switch
Streaming services are taking different paths on machine-made music: some warn you, some let you hide it.
AI-generated music is now a feature-level issue for the big streaming services. YouTube Music has started showing a label on the player page for tracks created primarily with generative AI, using a mix of disclosures from partners and its own detection tools.
The label is meant to inform, not restrict. AI involvement alone does not stop a track from earning money on YouTube, and reports on the announcement mention no option to remove AI tracks from search, recommendations or playlists.
Deezer is going further. It already labels tracks it detects as fully AI-generated and keeps them out of algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists. It has now announced a toggle that lets listeners hide AI-generated music, due to roll out globally before the end of 2026. Reports differ on how far the toggle reaches: some describe it as hiding AI tracks from search results, others as removing them from the whole catalogue.
The scale explains the urgency. Deezer says it receives close to 90,000 fully AI-generated tracks every day, and that up to 85% of streams on such tracks in 2025 were fraudulent. Tidal also labels fully AI recordings and lets listeners switch them off, and Spotify has its own AI labels and a spam filter.
