Universal's Grainge says AI uploads are outrunning streaming safeguards
On the Q3 call, UMG's chief cited roughly 90,000 fully AI tracks a day and urged platforms to stop paying for them.
Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge made AI-generated music a centrepiece of the company's Q3 earnings call on October 29. He said fully AI tracks uploaded to streaming services have grown from about 10,000 a day in early 2025 to more than 90,000, a figure that traces back to Deezer's own counts. In prepared remarks he put it at almost 100,000.
His line, as reported, was that "the volume is growing faster than the safeguards." He credited steps such as Deezer's planned option for users to exclude fully AI-generated content and Spotify's removal of more than 50 million AI tracks from recommendations, but called them insufficient.
Grainge argued that AI tracks should not be paid on the same basis as music from real artists. UMG reported Q3 revenue of about €3.39 billion, up roughly 12%. Reports differ on which executive was CFO on the call.
