Deezer/Ipsos survey: 97% of people can’t tell the difference between fully AI-generated and human made music – clear desire for transparency and fairness for artists

Deezer and Ipsos unveil a first-of-its-kind study exploring attitudes and perceptions around AI and music, conducted across 8 countries with 9000 people.

The survey shows overwhelming support for labeling of 100% AI-generated music, opposition to copyright violations and concerns about the livelihood of artists.

Deezer also reveals that roughly 50,000 fully AI-generated tracks are now uploaded every day, to the platform, accounting for 34% of all daily deliveries

Music creation with AI:

Nearly half (46%) think that AI can help them discover more music they like
51% think that AI will play a significant part in music creation in the next 10 years
51% think that AI will lead to the creation of more low-quality, generic sounding music on streaming platforms
Almost two thirds (64%) believe that AI could lead to a loss of creativity in music production

Recognition and consumption of AI-generated music:

97% couldn’t tell the difference between fully AI-generated music and human-made music in a blind test with two AI songs and one real song
More than half (52%) felt uncomfortable with not being able to tell the difference between AI and human-made music
66% of music streaming users say they would listen to 100% AI-generated music at least once, out of curiosity
45% of music streaming users would like to filter out 100% AI-generated music from their music streaming platform
40% of music streaming users say that they would skip without listening to 100% AI-music if they came across it

more reading in the source here: https://newsroom-deezer.com/2025/11/deezer-ipsos-survey-ai-music/

 

The testing methodology is questionable, requiring all correct answers for "success", and the limited genres presented. I think there can be a more nuanced survey that looks at where AI is successful at imitation and where humans are actually able to recognize the difference.

 

this only means that 97% of human made music is a bad as AI music.

do you belong to these 97% or to the other 3?

 

I can relate, can't tell the difference between human or AI generated music that have goal to sound close to some generic target/norm.

Spoiler: Longer answer

I never bothered with AI music, Suno or whatever, maybe heard some examples from some services few years ago and back then we debated here on forum about it, my opinion based on what I heard back then is that is good enough for background music.

Fast forward to few weeks ago, my friend hit me up one day, like check out what some guys from our hood are releasing, I'm blown away, especially how well they mixed stuff to translate to other devices, sure it lacked little depth, but it was like putting Thriller and then you change devices and thing stay the same pretty much (Realphones user here), low end was perfect, overall, stellar work, sound selection and everything, style was kinda generic, but it's was better work then what I heard some folks in the same genres do. He had existential crisis, like I'm doing music for X years and my production and output still sucks, what I'm doing wrong and all that.

So in coming weeks, You Tube kept recommending me some channels, similar story, channel is quite new, there's like 10-20 tracks already and there's obviously someone who know how do to this, again stellar production and all that, thinking wow, people these days really stepped up their games, this is sounding quite great, little generic, but again, people make generic music and over reference so much.

Long story short, 3 days ago I finally realized there's something similar to all of this, like there's no way so many folks approach mixing the same way and all that, then finally channel that is clearly labeled to do AI stuff pops out and at that point I'm realizing it's pretty much same approach to it then everything I heard, check with GPT about and it confirms AI services uses some specific target and I'm not delusional, then I finally cave in and start exploring what Suno output sounds like and wow, this thing come long way.

Long story short, I couldn't tell it was AI, nothing was really off, yeah, it's generic music, but over the years I listened to tons of music where folks tried to sound generic and failed, this was like first time they kinda nailed it in every aspect. So no, if people just don't do vocals with AI, there's 99% chance nobody could tell it's AI made, those lifeless AI vocals are only thing that maybe can give it away, other then that, instrumentals are really there, maybe even too perfect.

 

Last edited: Jan 8, 2026 at 9:17 PM

This.


and
Always felt 90% of all art or films, books, video games etc is crap, AI isn't in the remaining 10% and never will be without human interaction, it will make plenty of hits, but only 10% of hits are any good eh.

 

Recent surveys revealed the following:

97% want an AI blocker (like an ad blocker)
83% want a hacker team to put an end to this nonsense
75% want the good old days back
32% are in favor of abolishing the internet
65% are in favor of boycotting these platforms
77% are in favor of immediately banning all advertising on the internet
80% are in favor of a free internet

Institute for the Preservation of Musical Quality and Mental Health

There are three groups of people:

The first group does something.The second group watches what the
first group does, and the third group has no idea what's going on.

Which group do you belong to?

 

TBH I can't really spot the difference between bad mainstream pop music and bad AI-generated mainstream pop music.

 

I believe this survey. Some friends of mine who are paranoid with AI started claiming that some simplistic songs were AI generated just because they are simple.

 

50 000 AI new songs daily is insane, there were like 20 000 -30 000 new songs uploaded daily pre-AI some years ago, noone was listening to them, now imagine AI doubling it on its own, wow.

 

I believe it, within some margin of error on the numbers. I think it is probably close because there is SO much music out there. If you play me some random track, 97% sounds in the ballpark where I will not like that track , the artist, or even the style of music. Music that you do not care about is basically background music, AI or not. AI is getting deceptively close enough, where if someone does not listen very closely, or with a trained ear; you probably can fool them pretty easily.

Most people can't even tell the differences with tracks loaded into RX, etc.

 

Then I guess I am one one of the 3% considering I have to turn off the tv, facebook reels, youtube shorts due to all this Redialog and fake ia voice over garbage.

Let's not forget the insane zoom jump cuts back and forth every 5 seconds on every video, this is why I am barely on youtube, facebook or even the propaganda news these days.

Even the news channels are looking like reels and youtube shorts now using the same idiotic video trends. Every news station now moving the cameras, text over news reports, jump zoom cuts, clearly voice over back in the studio dialog etc it's completely a staged news production not real anymore even doing non remote reports from the studio using prerecorded video background plates keying.


Within 5 seconds I am annoying and irritated so you bet your eq curve that I can tell.

 

Last edited: Jan 8, 2026 at 8:07 PM

Believe little - question everything - think for yourself. This saying is from the book "How to See Through Manipulation."

 

Last edited: Jan 8, 2026 at 9:19 PM

The title is misleading. It should be "97% of people polled can't tell the difference between fully AI-gen and human music." That means that 97% of the 9,000 people polled couldn't tell the difference, not 97% of people. It would be significant to mention how they decided who to ask to participate in their survey. Who were these people? Do they have any experience in music production? Without this type of additional information the results are negligible.

 

I had a very negative outlook on AI music for a long time. I Had a change of heart recently when I looked at it from a perspective that ignored my ego, something some are probably not able to do. It is similar to how I eventually allowed autotune in my life. For a long time I hated autotune and it turns out I only hate it when thats all there is. Like I've told people if your plan is to go to the studio and sing tone deaf and expect auto tune to fix it , you need a new fucking plan. But take it as an effect instead of a correction tool and all of a sudden it has some really cool shit you can do with it for harmonies and octaves and all types of things.

A.I. Is the same way. if its 100% AI generated as a substitution for human ability, its normally very pedestrian and lacks soul.
But; when utilized for its strengths to enhance human ability it can take music to a whole new level.

These things we use to make music, the instruments, the digital workspaces, the pedals, the buttons the knobs... these are all tools.
A hammer in the hands of an unskilled man will do little more than smash things together and make a lot of noise.
That same hammer in the hands of a skilled carpenter can construct things that last for centuries and inspire others to keep building.

In all endeavors humans have ever taken an interest in, we advance by our technological advancement along side it.
Horse and buggies gave way to cars. trains gave way to planes (for the most part), vinyl records and single track recording to the digital age where everyone has a studio at home. . There are always growing pains, and there are also always those who wish to stay in the now and fear change.

Regardless of which side of the fence you are on, it isn't going to stop what is happening. The best you can hope to do is embrace change and possibly influence the direction in which these changes take shape.

 

Initiative is for tagging AI music, it would be negligible if music producers were in such an high percentage of global music listeners or even global population, doubt they make 1% of global population or higher percentage then that of actual global music listeners. Even if half population is listening to music, there's like 2% of that populated with music producers. So if you poll 9000 people, 90-180 people aren't really going to make that metric change, even from 97% to 95%, so it's pretty much negligible metric, even if numbers are even in 5-10% range, which I seriously doubt, still majority of people can't tell the difference.

 

where is Foster when you need him?

 

Do you know how I never hear AI music? I'm not a goddamn consumer, I chose what I listen to with intent. If I want to hear new things, I'll go check some reviews or browse through the catalog of a label I like. That AI issue is only happened because people have been disempowered and music doesn't matter as much as before to them, and that's something corporations did to them (ok, people let it happened).

You used to get booed and bullied if your music sucked back in the day (well, boomer's day). This need to come back. People need to care and stop with their lazy habits. They cared so much they spent 20 bucks on a CD, now they can't be fucked to check the name on their slop playlist.

That study is, like a lot of studies, probably total bullshit tho

 

There was a world before the invention of AI, and there's now a world after the invention of AI. Which world do I want to live in?

How did musicians even make music without AI? Music from the pre-AI era was high-quality and always will be. Nobody needs AI to make music. Don't let anyone convince you of the opportunities it offers and how it will make your music better.

Either you understand your craft, in which case you're a musician, or you understand little about music and use AI as a crutch to get something done. But please, label your music "created with AI." Who's trying to sell us these AI stories? Right, the tech companies have invented something they want to sell for profit. AI will cost jobs, and life will become more mechanical and less human.

We want people with feelings, not cold machines.

 

It's getting harder to tell reality from AI, some people don't even believe my avatar is really me.

 

Agree with comments about people in general having become used to sameness (and not only in music). These new "tools" can be used as mere tools, but they are more than that as there is always lots of biases (corporate, market, cultural, etc.) involved in their development and training. Cel phones and social media, for instance, have been changing the way we socialize, look for dates and partners, our attention span, even our cognitive abilities to understand (and make) complex things (mere tools?) and we are just starting to understand this after some generations have been affected. I am in no way against new techs, just that people start using them completely unaware of their side-effects and consequences - they only see the positive sides at first, and start to understand the negative ones after some time. But then they are already hooked and cannot do anything without them anymore.
Only when you put things in a broader perspective considering how today's technology is being developed and appropriated by corporations to make you an addicted user for the sake of their profit, you see how mere tools can also be something else.

 

Last edited: Jan 9, 2026 at 12:46 PM