Sony takes down 135,000 deepfakes of its artists’ music. 14 hours earlier. Mark Savage, Music Correspondent. Images from Getty. Sony Music, a major music company, has demanded the removal of over 135,343 songs from streaming platforms, created by scammers posing as its artists using generative AI deepfakes. These targeted top acts like Beyoncé, Queen, and Harry Styles. Sony stated that the spread of such counterfeits inflicts “direct commercial harm to legitimate recording artists” and intentionally targets musicians promoting a new album. “In the most severe instances, [these deepfakes] could undermine a release campaign or harm an artist’s reputation,” stated Dennis Kooker, president of Sony’s global digital business. The company notes that the volume of such generated songs is rising as AI technology grows more affordable and accessible. It estimates that the 135,000 tracks detected so far are merely a fraction of those uploaded to streaming platforms. In the past year since March, it has pinpointed around 60,000 tracks falsely claiming to feature artists from its roster. Artists such as Bad Bunny, Miley Cyrus, and Mark Ronson may also have been impacted. “Deepfakes are a demand-driven phenomenon,” Kooker explained.
