Sony Music has asked streaming services to remove more than 260,000 AI-generated deepfake tracks impersonating its artists, up from 135,000 at the end of March.
The new total covers removal requests recorded by the end of September. The unauthorised recordings imitate artists’ voices or likenesses, with Harry Styles and Adele among those targeted, alongside Britney Spears, Queen and Michael Jackson.
Sony told the Financial Times that such recordings mislead listeners and harm artists. Its figures show at least 125,000 additional removal requests in six months.
The 260,000 figure refers to deepfakes linked to Sony artists. It is not a count of every AI-generated track distributed to streaming services. A separate form of streaming fraud pairs bulk synthetic releases with automated listening accounts, generating plays through bots instead of ordinary listener activity.
Neon’s earlier report on who is responsible when AI music floods streaming traces how generators, distributors and platforms each shape what reaches listeners.
Deezer reported in July that fully AI-generated music exceeded half of all daily uploads on peak days in June, with 90,000 such tracks delivered per day on average. Those tracks still accounted for only 1 to 3 per cent of listening on the service. Deezer said up to 85 per cent of streams attached to fully AI-generated tracks in 2025 were fraudulent.
Sony is also a plaintiff in the US copyright case against AI music company Suno. That case concerns the alleged unauthorised use of recordings to train AI systems, a separate question from fake releases carrying an artist’s identity.
Deezer labels detected AI releases, excludes them from algorithmic and editorial recommendations, and removes fraudulent plays from royalty calculations. Sony’s latest total records requests for removal, not the number of tracks that platforms have confirmed as deleted.
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