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Misleading Reports on Gen Z’s AI Music Habits Are Feeding a Collective Hallucination
An unlikely scenario: Breaking Rust, Xania Monet, Velvet Sundown and Sienna Rose (insets, clockwise from bottom left)
A weirdly-worded survey can sow a lot of confusion, and we just got a weird one on AI music. According to a Morgan Stanley report which was widely picked up this week, 60% of 18-29 year olds surveyed said they listen to AI-generated music for three hours a week.
That’s a lot of ear slop. One booster-ish blogger crowed that “young Americans are listening to an amount of AI-generated music each week that’s roughly on par with the run time of “Avatar.” Another declared, “for the music industry, the takeaway is clear. AI music isn’t a distant future problem. It’s already here and people are listening.”
But when the Stems research team dug into the actual results, the AI-triumphalist narrative started falling apart. For one, there's little sign these respondents were actually seeking out AI music. Survey takers said their primary sources of AI music were YouTube and TikTok — which means unless tens of millions of young Americans are hunting for videos by AI artists (there's little evidence they are), they were talking about background music. That would be generic music behind explainer videos on YouTube, or jokey music behind TikTok videos that the algorithm has served up — a passive experience where the music is not the main dish.
On platforms where people are more actively choosing what to listen to, they are overwhelmingly not choosing AI music. Deezer released data showing that fully AI-generated tracks are ~0.5% of its streams, and that a large share of plays on such tracks are probably bot-driven.
Compounding this report’s problem: it’s a survey. People are self-reporting their AI music consumption, and people are bad at identifying AI music (Deezer reported a 97% fail rate). How many respondents were mislabeling something that sounded fake: sped-up edits, mashups, content-farm soundtrack music? I also wonder if younger people reflexively tag things as "AI" more than older folks do.
I'm not dismissing the rise of AI music. Are there actual humans seeking it out? Sure (see: Joe Rogan). Directionally, this survey shows that AI is encroaching on certain lanes: TikTok and YouTube, stock music. But it doesn't show that 18-29 year olds are choosing to consume hours of AI music every week. If anything, it shows that AI music is something being done to them.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Hit me at [email protected].