By Samuel Zimmermann aka Parandroid | Founder of Audionerdz
“When everyone is talking, nobody is heard.”
That’s what it feels like to be a real music producer in 2025.
With Spotify and other platforms being flooded by thousands of AI-generated tracks daily, a new breed of audio smog is taking over. While the world marvels at AI’s capacity to create, few are paying attention to what’s being destroyed in the process—the soul of music, the livelihood of artists, and the trust between creators and their audiences.
This isn’t a call to fear innovation. This is a call to protect creation.
🎶 The Rise of Synthetic Sound: Numbers Don’t Lie
Let’s start with facts:
Over 20,000 new songs are uploaded to Spotify every day.
A large portion of them are created with minimal to zero human input.
Some AI companies like Boomy have generated over 14 million songs already.
In early 2023, Spotify removed tens of thousands of AI tracks due to suspected streaming fraud.
While not every AI-generated track is malicious or harmful, the sheer volume of content created without emotional intent or musical intuition is drowning out artists who pour decades of experience and life into their craft.
💸 A Race to the Bottom: Streaming Revenue & Devaluation of Art
As AI tracks multiply like weeds in a neglected garden, real artists are suffocating financially.
Streaming royalties are already notoriously low—Spotify pays around $0.003–$0.005 per stream. Now imagine that pot being split with bots, hobbyists pushing bulk content, and click-farm tactics engineered by shady operators using AI.
AI allows one person to flood Spotify with hundreds of tracks, essentially gaming the algorithm and cashing in at scale, while producers who actually compose, mix, and master their music are left with digital crumbs.
🧠 Creativity vs. Calculation: Art Has Intent
AI doesn’t suffer. It doesn’t love. It doesn’t hallucinate in an Indian monsoon or get goosebumps when the kick finally sits right in the mix at 4 AM.
That’s what makes our music real. Human artistry is rooted in experience, consciousness, culture, and transformation. And yet, streaming algorithms can’t tell the difference between a 2-minute AI ambient loop and a carefully layered sonic journey forged from heartbreak and vision.
When discovery is dictated by volume, quality disappears. When everyone becomes a producer overnight using text prompts, what happens to those of us who live and breathe sound?
🎭 Fraud, Identity Theft & The Collapse of Trust
In 2024, several AI albums were falsely attributed to real artists on Spotify and Apple Music—without their consent. Not only is this identity theft, it’s a slap in the face to those of us who’ve spent years building our sonic signature.
If listeners can’t trust that the music they’re hearing is real, the entire value proposition of streaming music collapses. Platforms risk becoming the audio version of spam email—technically endless, but emotionally hollow.
🔍 The Bigger Picture: Cultural and Ethical Responsibility
We are not Luddites. Most of us already use AI in subtle ways—whether it’s for mastering, stems separation, or content writing.
The problem isn’t AI.
The problem is unregulated exploitation and the race for engagement at the expense of experience.
Unless streaming platforms, distributors, and labels draw clear boundaries:
Artists will continue to see diminishing returns.
Audiences will struggle to find authentic voices.
Music will become a utility instead of a cultural force.
🛡️ What We Can Do: From One Artist to Another
Here’s how we push back and reclaim our space:
Transparency First: Demand that platforms clearly label AI-generated content.
Human Curatorship: Push for playlists curated by musicians, not just algorithms.
Ethical Monetization: Refuse to support distributors who mass-upload AI content without quality control.
Community Support: Buy music directly. Share your favorite real artists. Educate your audience.
Legislation & Copyright: Support legal frameworks that protect artists’ voices, likeness, and compositional rights.
🧬 Final Word: Soul Can’t Be Synthesized
This isn’t a nostalgic defense of the past. It’s a protective act of rebellion to ensure music remains sacred, real, and meaningful.
As someone who’s played across 30 countries, met thousands of fans face to face, and felt the bass shake both dancefloors and hearts—I’ll tell you this:
No machine will ever replace the experience of human sound.
If you’re an artist, don’t give up. Double down.
If you’re a listener, listen deeper.
And if you’re a platform, it’s time to choose—are you curating music or enabling noise?
Let’s make sure our signal breaks through the noise.
Written for the creators, by a creator.
Support the movement. Support real music.
🎛️ Audionerdz.net – for producers who give a damn.
