AI-powered fraudsters are generating revenue by adding fake songs to the profiles of real artists on Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal. According to a 404 Media investigation, individuals create songs with Suno or Udio and cover art with AI, then use distributors such as DistroKid to present the work as belonging to the targeted artist. Because of insufficient verification, the content appears in official discographies while the revenue goes to the uploaders. Independent, unmanaged and deceased artist profiles are particularly at risk. Odette Child has detected more than 300 fake AI-generated songs since July. While approximately 50,000 AI-generated songs are uploaded to Spotify every day, the company is developing a limited beta review tool. Spotify and Amazon Music said they were continuing their investments.
Why it matters
This picture shows that artist profiles on music platforms are sensitive infrastructure not only for reaching listeners but also for revenue and identity verification. Independent artists who do not actively manage their catalogs, as well as representatives of deceased musicians, may have to regularly monitor recordings added under their names. For listeners, the problem is that the appearance of a work under an official profile does not guarantee that it was actually released by the artist. For distributors and platforms, the key open question is where responsibility for verification begins and ends during the upload process. Limited review tools are raising questions about the scope and speed of this oversight in the face of large numbers of uploads.
Background
Spotify is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 6 news stories mentioning this name in the past 90 days; the most recent is dated 18 September 2026.