The streaming payout just became the front line of the ai music war. tidal cut royalties to zero on…
the streaming payout just became the front line of the ai music war. tidal cut royalties to zero on ai-generated tracks in august, hitting about 2.3 million songs that were earning between 400 and 600 thousand dollars a month, while deezer demonetized 85 percent of ai streams and spotify removed 75 million spam tracks in its crackdown.
the cheapest music to make is now the hardest to get paid for.
Context
Verified source: Forbes (Jul 6, 2026) says Tidal announced a policy starting mid-July to identify 100% AI tracks, tag them and stop paying royalties on them. Replayed Studio says the policy was announced Jun 29, 2026. Deezer (Apr 20, 2026) says AI-generated tracks were 44% of new uploads, nearly 75,000 a day, and that it tags and removes them from recommendations.
Tidal's zero-royalty policy on wholly AI tracks and Deezer's tagging and demonetizing of fraudulent AI streams match the sources. The post says Tidal cut royalties in August; the sources read date the announcement Jun 29 and the start mid-July. The 2.3 million songs and 400 to 600 thousand dollars a month, Deezer demonetizing 85% of AI streams and Spotify removing 75 million spam tracks were not seen in the sources read, so unsupported here, not refuted. in the excerpts read. 'The hardest to get paid for' is the author's opinion.
Related work
- The Ghost Catalog, Cadenza ↗Compares platform AI music policies.
Watch next
- Find Spotify's own spam-removal figure and Tidal's affected track count.
Sources
- AI Music Detection Becomes Vital With Tidal's New Policy, Forbesforbes.com
- Deezer and TIDAL AI Music Royalties Explained, Replayed Studioreplayedstudio.com
- AI-generated tracks represent 44% of new uploaded music, Deezer Newsroomnewsroom-deezer.com
- The Ghost Catalog, Cadenzacadenza.work
Provenance
The note above is reproduced unedited from the original post, first published on Threads on 24 September 2026 at 19:59 IST. Sources are the papers and datasets the note draws on.
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