Stop the Slop: Sir Lucian Brings the Hammer Down
In his address accompanying UMG’s Q3 quarterly report, label-group topper Sir Lucian Grainge addressed the proliferation of AI-generated music and how it’s taking an undue slice of the revenue pie.
As early as 2023, Grainge reminded the audience, “We saw the wave of AI slop heading toward the music ecosystem.”
“In early 2025,” he noted, “roughly 10,000 AI-generated tracks were arriving each day. Today, more than 90,000 fully AI-generated tracks are uploaded daily. The volume is growing faster than the safeguards.”
This is not harmless clutter. AI slop degrades the fan experience and diverts value from artists. It serves no one: not artists, platforms or consumers.”
—Sir Lucian Grainge
AI labeling and other protections represent progress against the onslaught, but slop continues to splash everywhere. In an example that’s earned wide press pickup, Sir Lucian pointed to the blues charts on assorted DSPs, where the “work” of an array of fictional, AI-generated “artists” appears higher on the chart than songs by Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James and Johnnie Taylor.
This is a genre built on pain and perseverance, distilled into lasting art. As Grainge remarked, the genre’s charts “are being polluted by AI content that synthetically imitates that emotional impact.” The fact that instantly generated pabulum by imaginary acts—which isn’t labeled as such—is diluting the royalty pool for some of our most culturally significant artists is downright shameful.
Those who flood the zone with such material are bad actors in black hats, and depending on which AI-creation engine they’ve used, their slop may have been made, without permission, using the very songs they’re now usurping on the charts.
“This is not harmless clutter,” Grainge insisted. “AI slop degrades the fan experience and diverts value from artists. It serves no one: not artists, platforms or consumers.”
So what now? Discussions are ongoing, and the streaming services have been variously responsive about the necessity of properly patrolling the ocean of slop.
“We know how to build win-win agreements with our DSP partners. And a shared problem now demands shared action,” the UMG boss declared. “We will enforce our contractual protections and insist on clearer labeling across the ecosystem.”