Scammers are exploiting a loophole in music distribution services to upload AI-generated songs to genuine artists’ Spotify and streaming profiles, falsely presenting them as new releases. The scammers then collect the royalties, while the real artists may suffer financial losses and damage to their reputations.

The process reportedly involves creating a song and cover art with generative AI, uploading them through a distributor such as DistroKid, and falsely claiming to represent the targeted artist. Tests found fake tracks appearing on Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music and Amazon Music; smaller, unmanaged and deceased artists are particularly vulnerable. Odette Child has identified more than 300 such songs, while roughly 50,000 AI-generated tracks are estimated to reach Spotify daily. Spotify says it is developing a review tool for artists, but the feature remains in limited beta.