The Algorithmic Dilution of the Streaming Catalogue

Forty-four percent of new uploads to the streaming service Deezer are now identified as machine-generated. This saturation is the logical conclusion of a market model that privileges quantity over quiddity. The digital archive is being liquidated, replaced by a slurry of algorithmic noise that mimics the superficial contours of human composition without its underlying teleology. For the composer, this is an existential threat to economic viability; for the listener, it is a structural hollowing out of the musical experience. The platform’s decision to tag these files is a futile gesture of administrative housekeeping against a rising tide of data-driven mimicry.