In late 2025, Papaoutai, a French-language song, exploded across streaming platforms. The song currently has close to 140 million streams on Spotify.
What most listeners did not realise was that the viral afro-soul version remix of the 2013 hit by Belgian artist Stromae was created using AI, and with most music platforms lacking clear labelling for AI music, many listeners did not know.
AI-generated tracks now account for 44% of all new music uploaded to the platform, according to streaming platform Deezer, and 97% of people it surveyed could not hear any difference between AI- and human-made music.
As AI-generated music becomes harder to distinguish from human-created work, streaming platforms are being forced to answer uncomfortable questions about impersonation, fraud, ownership, and authenticity.
For Spotify, this means introducing new safeguards to promote AI transparency on its platform.
