Billboard France honors Deezer for its pioneering role in detecting AI-generated music

Jesper Wendel 5 min read
  • Alexis Lanternier, CEO of Deezer, recognized as one of the most influential figures in the music industry in France
  • Deezer receives Billboard France’s Innovation Award for its AI-music detection technology

Paris, September 16, 2026 – Alexis Lanternier, CEO of Deezer, was recognized as one of the most influential figures in the French music industry at the inaugural Billboard Power Players ceremony in Paris, organized by Billboard France, September 15, 2026. Deezer also received the Innovation Award for its proprietary AI-music detection technology.

This double recognition highlights the transformation led by Alexis Lanternier since joining Deezer as CEO, in September 2024. Over the past two years, he has strengthened the platform’s position, maintaining focus on two key priorities: building sustainable growth and defending a more transparent and equitable music ecosystem for creators, rights holders, and fans.

Two years of transformation for Deezer

Under Alexis Lanternier’s leadership, Deezer reached a historic milestone by achieving profitability for the first time, in 2025. The platform recorded €534 million in revenue and a positive net income of €8 million, while continuing to grow its direct subscriber base in France, which increased by 8.6% over the year. These results demonstrate Deezer’s ability to combine financial performance, technological innovation, and a strong commitment to music creation.

“Being recognized by Billboard France as one of the music industry’s Power Players is a tremendous honor. Above all, this award recognizes the work of Deezer’s teams and our shared commitment to putting technology at the service of music, artists, and fans. In the face of the profound changes affecting our industry, we will continue to champion an approach based on transparency, fairness, and responsibility,” said Alexis Lanternier, CEO of Deezer.

Pioneering technology in response to the rise of AI-generated music

Deployed in January 2025, Deezer’s proprietary technology can identify tracks generated entirely by AI with 99.8% accuracy. In 2025, it detected and flagged more than 13.4 million AI-generated tracks.In June 2026, nearly 90,000 tracks generated entirely by AI were delivered to Deezer every day, representing, at peak levels, more than half of all new uploads to the platform.

To preserve the transparency of the user experience and protect artists’ earnings, Deezer has introduced a series of unprecedented measures:

  • Excluding AI-generated songs from algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists;
  • Clearly labeling albums containing AI-generated songs;
  • Demonetizing streams identified as fraudulent, which account for up to 85% of plays associated with this AI-generated content;
  • Removing AI-generated tracks used for stream fraud or that have received no plays for at least six months.

As a result of these measures, AI-generated content accounts for only 1-3% of plays on Deezer, despite its growing share of overall upload volumes.

Innovation serving the entire music industry

Since January 2026, Deezer has made its detection technology available to other players in the music ecosystem, including streaming platforms, distributors, and collective management organizations. The technology has notably been adopted by French collective management organization Sacem, Dutch organization Buma-Stemra, and Hungarian organization EJI.

By making this technology accessible to the entire music ecosystem, Deezer wants to contribute to the development of common standards that will help better identify synthetic content, combat fraud, and protect the value of human creativity. This strategy is part of Deezer’s broader commitment to fairer streaming. The platform was the first to implement an artist-centric remuneration model* and to sign the Statement on AI Training, which calls for creators’ rights to be respected in the training of generative artificial intelligence models. 

With this distinction from Billboard France, Deezer reaffirms its leading role in the debates shaping the future of the music industry and its ambition to make innovation a force for artists, rights holders, and fans.

*A remuneration system designed to better reward fans’ intentional listening and the artists who inspire that engagement, while limiting the impact of non-music content and fraudulent plays on the distribution of revenues.

*** ENDS ***

Press Contact Deezer

Jesper Wendel
jwendel@deezer.com

ABOUT DEEZER 

Deezer is a leading independent music experiences platform, creating ways for people to Live the music. Founded in Paris in 2007, Deezer is available in 180 countries, and brings together a team of 530 people across France, Germany, the UK, Brazil and the US, sharing a passion for music, technology and innovation.

Deezer offers a full-range music catalog, lossless HiFi audio and innovative features designed to enhance discovery, engagement and personalization. With a mission to make music thrive, Deezer is committed to help build a more sustainable music ecosystem, and has pioneered both AI-music tagging and a new monetization model that better rewards artists and songwriters.

Beyond its direct-to-consumer service, Deezer partners with leading brands through Deezer for Business, extending its reach and driving brand value and user engagement across multiple industries, including telecommunications, media, audio hardware and retail.

Deezer is listed on Euronext Paris (Ticker: DEEZR. ISIN: FR001400AYG6).

For the latest news, please visit https://newsroom-deezer.com/  
For Investor Relations, please visit https://www.deezer-investors.com/  
Please follow DeezerNews on X and Deezer on LinkedIn for real time information.

Deezer – Live the music