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For Sale Mar 27, 2026 at 7:55 PM

AI Slop Is Flooding Streaming—and Musicians Are Fighting Back

Posted by timemagazine

AI Slop Is Flooding Streaming—and Musicians Are Fighting Back
TIME
AI Slop Is Flooding Streaming—and Musicians Are Fighting Back
A surge of AI-generated music is overwhelming streaming platforms, as artists warn of impersonation, scams, and lost income.
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ChainLC Mar 27, 2026 +51
simple solution. someone create a service that doesn't let ai slop in. Call it "Real Music" or something like that. And only allow certified real live artists on it.
51
theknyte Mar 27, 2026 +41
So far, there's 3: Bandcamp, Qobuz, and ROKK
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kiwiboyus Mar 27, 2026 +12
Loving Bandcamp
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JT3436 Mar 27, 2026 +7
Audio quality on Qobuz is amazing. And super easy to transfer your playlists.
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Poison_the_Phil Mar 27, 2026 +3
Bandcamp is definitely the best option for artists In aware of
3
itislupus89 Mar 27, 2026 +3
Tidal too if you're just looking for streaming
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TheCudder Mar 27, 2026 +9
Are we back to the 90's, lol? *Real* was once a very popular thing --- Real Audio / Media https://preview.redd.it/tvcqzefwmnrg1.png?width=407&format=png&auto=webp&s=579ed08102227b01edd8237816929bc19e3e03d0
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Zeusifer Mar 27, 2026 +8
RealPlayer was the worst crapware. I refused to install that shit on my PC.
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theknyte Mar 27, 2026 +6
Nothing like watching "Real video" at 240p/15 FPS. With constant stuttering and buffering, with scratchy AM radio quality audio cutting in and out! But man, it was the future!
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duck1014 Mar 27, 2026 -6
Go one step further. Ban pitch correction, with the exception of using it for artistic purposes.
-6
ChickenConstant9855 Mar 27, 2026 +3
Uh why?
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duck1014 Mar 27, 2026 -7
Simple. It completely ruins music.
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ChickenConstant9855 Mar 27, 2026 +3
Then listen to artists who you don't think use it. Simple. Let other artists do what they want
3
Utilitarian_Proxy Mar 27, 2026 +3
Live music is still a thing. Actual musicians performing on authentic analogue instruments. People were singing and making music for hundreds of years before streaming, digital downloads and AI came along.
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InfidelZombie Mar 27, 2026 +2
I wouldn't have the slightest clue how to go about finding AI music. Ask an LLM I guess? Are people just listening to random playlists in the internet or something?
2
Calamitous-Ortbo Mar 28, 2026 -1
Three of the top ten songs on iTunes are AI. You’re not going to have to go looking for it and you’ve probably already heard it and didn’t even know.
-1
InfidelZombie Mar 28, 2026 +2
How? I only listen to albums I like. And I don't have any apples.
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timemagazine Mar 27, 2026 +3
Some musicians contend that AI is helping to democratize the creation of music. And streaming platforms say they are mitigating the downside impacts of AI by implementing tools to crack down on imposters. But many musicians fear the entire industry is nevertheless sliding towards the prioritization of machine-made slop, making it increasingly hard for rising or independent musicians to make a living. [Read more.](https://time.com/article/2026/03/26/ai-slop-is-threatening-musicians-can-tech-companies-stem-the-tide-/?utm_source=listnook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial)
3
voyager_response Mar 27, 2026 +9
I think it makes it hard to get noticed. I put an [album](https://open.spotify.com/album/7mE1LYnqaej7JLEr2UYjdR) out 2 years ago and between the flood of AI music, and the regular flood of human music, it is hard for anyone to find it. The streaming sites make it difficult as well, because the menu's and recommendations are all algorithmic it means you are filtered out entirely unless you have a certain popularity rating. Then they don't even pay you unless your track gets more than 1000 streams in a certain time frame, which seems like copyright infringement, but isn't for some legal reason I have yet to find support for. Some of my relatives (boomers) really like the AI music and play it over and over which is wild to me.
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masta030 Mar 27, 2026 +9
Idk a thing about your family, however, ive noticed a lot of people who enjoy AI generated content only consume content for it's entertainment value, they don't absorb and/or care about the deeper meanings in art, so if it looks/sounds fine, they enjoy it
9
delete_next_week Mar 27, 2026 +1
As someone that enjoys both playing and listening to music, I'm finding my interest being drawn much more toward the music made in our living room, and much less toward finding new "recorded" music to listen to.
1
LiteratureMindless71 Mar 27, 2026 +1
It's flooding everywhere
1
manny1213 Mar 27, 2026 +1
omg i've noticed this too, so many weird ai songs popping up in my discover playlists lately. artists deserve better than competing with computer-generated garbage.
1
lee_a_chrimes Mar 28, 2026 +1
You just know people like Michael Shulman (the Suno guy) hear stories like this and put out a press release saying "isn't it great how that enterprising secondary artist was able to engage with and gamify his involvement with the original, unfinished track? All while maximising revenue streams and delivering valuable shareholder returns" Seriously - fire everything to do with this into the sun, and if any embers drift back to earth, bury them at the bottom of the ocean
1
-Baloo Mar 27, 2026 -17
I play instruments, but also produce on various DAWs, studied sound engineering.. yet I have been loving using AI to generate music. Say what you want, but it IS just another tool, just like people can automate chord progressions, arpeggios, chop up samples, use drum loop kits. 
-17
theknyte Mar 27, 2026 +9
The issue is there are too many people not using it as a tool, but as "Slop generators" to flood streaming services to try to rake in as much revenue as possible. While real musicians are playing with AI, like you said, as a tool to assist them in making their own music. Whether that's somebody using it to generate a drum stem to accompany their real guitars and bass in a track, to people using it to help flesh out or fine tune songs they have already written. Heck, Boy George says he loves using ChatGPT to help him compose lyrics. The real issue is the non-musicians and non-artists going into apps like Suno, and just inputting a simple prompt, ("Hot Dance Track, "High Energy Pop Song", etc.) generating dozens if not hundreds of renders, and then releasing all of them in a flood to every service they can. Flooding the play charts and diluting the chances of real musicians getting their tracks heard.
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-Baloo Mar 27, 2026 -7
Personally, and I know many will disagree - I don't really care how it was made, I care about how listening to it makes me feel. There will always be 'purists' and people that like something because of the skill that went into making it, the technical prowess, the meaning, but in the end what matters to me is only if it is enjoyable to listen to. How many huge hits, do you think were entirely written, composed, and performed by the artist? Probably not that many, the big hits often have ghost writers, sound engineers, studio artists, teams of actual skill behind them. I do think that it is sad, that AI is disrupting so many creative industries, and will damage the ability for people to earn a living from their passion. Hopefully people will continue to find different ways to actually support the artists they like, show up to their tours, go to a live performance.
-7
theknyte Mar 27, 2026 +1
Depends on the genre. Like pop is mostly written by professional songwriters, and performed by other talent. Rock, Metal, Rap, etc. - Almost always written by the band/performer(s) themselves. Madonna doesn't write her own music. Metallica does.
1
dinosaur_rocketship Mar 28, 2026 +2
I think you’re underestimating how many rock and rap artists play music written by other people. Metal I actually agree with you, but rock and rap? No. Not any more than pop. Bruno Mars, Adele, The Weeknd, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, all very involved in writing their own stuff. I will say Bruno Mars stands out because he exclusively plays his own stuff, which is written with his band, and he plays the instruments on the recordings, but he is 100% the exception.
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-Baloo Mar 27, 2026 -2
Rap..? I think you’d be surprised. What is the complaint.. That “real” artists will be harder to find? Well let’s be honest, throwing on Spotify recommendations was already one of the laziest ways to find new musicians. If you like metal, go to your local spots and find some live bands. Nothing is stopping people from doing a bit of digging on the artists. Fundamentally what is the reason that you listen to music, is it because it makes you feel something or because of who and how it was made?
-2
theknyte Mar 27, 2026 +2
If you listen to anything beyond modern radio hits, you'll find most music can go pretty deep into the human element. There are songs written from people, from real places that you can personally relate to. "Something In The Way" by Nirvana, for example. Kurt Cobain wrote that about his time he was homeless and living under a bridge. I too was a similar point in my life once, and that song hits hard because it's real and relatable to me. An AI has never been homeless. An AI will never know what love gained or lost feels like. An AI will never know sorrow, joy, happiness, pain, loss, suffering, depression, and so on. I find music that I can relate to, to be far more magnetic to me on a deeper emotional level. I don't simply love songs because they have a catchy hook, melody, or beat. Some songs make me cry. Some songs hype me up. Some songs made me laugh. I have yet to hear a 100% AI generated song that makes me feel those emotions anywhere on the same level.
2
-Baloo Mar 28, 2026 +1
I don’t see how people using AI changes that? It’s not going to stop people that enjoy making music, from creating, in fact it will likely increase the amount of people that are able to make new music. In the end it’s Pandora’s box, there is no way of putting AI back in the box, and the way I see it is that actual creatives will have another amazing tool to expand their abilities. People need to open their minds, and stop with the strict and narrow perception of what art “should” be.
1
CokeDigler Mar 27, 2026 -15
Since Time magazine over here is using it, can Slop as a buzz word be over already.
-15
BahGawdAlmightay Mar 27, 2026 +5
It's not really a buzzword, it's a permanent descriptor.
5
Krow101 Mar 27, 2026 -23
If you can't make better music than AI ... it's on you.
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BloodyHareStudio Mar 27, 2026 +8
AI doesnt write better material than humans, but it does create high production value effortlessly which to do legitimately, is very expensive. to the tune of 10K per song and even much higher that is why its unfair the average listener is acclimated to expensive audio production and rarely forgives poor production.
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voyager_response Mar 27, 2026 +1
You bring up an interesting point. The music it is trained on is often commercial quality, but it would also be trained on lo-fi recordings as well, so I wonder how it decides whether to add harmonic distortion, clipping, pops/clicks and stuff like that. It might take the genre from the prompt and add artifacts based on the training songs from that genre.
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djfishfingers Mar 27, 2026 +4
I can't. But all that means is that I don't create music. I wouldn't want to have ai create something for me and call it my own art.
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whitehypeman Mar 27, 2026 -3
Don't understand why you're being down voted. I make music as a hobby. While it's made me want to make music less and I don't listen to ai music, if people like what they hear, they like what they hear
-3
crazydrums27 Mar 27, 2026 +2
The issue is that music isn't just a one-sided entertainment transaction. Musicians aren't just a bunch of people competing to make the best product, it's often people putting their heart into what they write and - even before ai - fighting just for their art to be seen.  Now you take AI that can write and release albums in a fraction of the time a person could release even a single? It doesn't even matter if what I write is better, the chances of anything I release even being heard goes down the more people accept ai music. I've got a bunch of half finished songs that I don't know if I'll ever decide to finish, regardless of how much I think people would like them. I look at how AI music is being normalized and flooding the market, and I wonder if anyone will ever get to listen to my stuff to realize they like it.
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