Sony nukes 135k deepfakes
Sony removed more than 135,000 deepfake songs from streaming services in a sweeping takedown this week — a corporate effort to purge synthetic content that siphons royalties. Industry leaders are now calling for standardized AI labeling as the “next critical challenge” to distinguish human from machine music. (techradar.com)
Sony made the disclosure at the IFPI Global Music Report launch in London on March 18, 2026, where president of Sony’s global digital business Dennis Kooker warned the proliferation of algorithmic impostors causes “direct commercial harm” to artists. (ifpi.org) The company’s announcement named high-profile targets including Beyoncé, Queen and Harry Styles, and singled out additional likely victims such as Bad Bunny, Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson. (bbc.co.uk) Sony told industry forums it has identified roughly 60,000 falsely attributed tracks since March 2025, and trade reporting notes the label had already logged more than 75,000 takedown requests a year earlier — a pattern industry analysts describe as rapid escalation. (musicbusinessworldwide.com) The IFPI’s Global Music Report published the same week put global recorded-music revenues at US$31.7 billion for 2025 and flagged both AI innovation and streaming fraud as top issues for the industry going forward. (ifpi.org) Federal prosecutors followed with an unrelated enforcement milestone when Michael (Mike) Smith pleaded guilty on March 19, 2026 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after admitting he created hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs and used bot accounts to stream them billions of times. (justice.gov) Prosecutors said the scheme diverted more than $8 million in royalties; Smith agreed to forfeit $8,091,843.64 and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 29, 2026, while the Mechanical Licensing Collective says it flagged irregular activity in early 2023. (justice.gov) Trade voices at IFPI and in reporting urged platforms to deploy upload-point detection and to standardize AI labeling for music, with industry commentators calling clear labelling “the next critical challenge” to separate human from machine content. (musicbusinessworldwide.com)
