U.S. Consumers Vehemently Oppose AI Music, Survey Finds

Photo Credit: Igor Omilaev

Looks like the robot takeover will have to wait: According to a new survey, Americans are vehemently opposed to AI-generated entertainment, with 90% of consumers believing “it’s important to know the media they consume is created by a real person.”

This and other stats come from iHeartMedia’s AudioCon 3.0: The Human Consumer study, which the radio giant released as part of its AudioCon 2025 event yesterday. As described by iHeart, it tapped a company called Critical Mass Media to spearhead the underlying survey; north of 2,000 U.S. adults are said to have responded in August.

And despite (or perhaps because of) the ongoing AI-content avalanche, these respondents were rather united in their opposition to artificial intelligence. At the top level, 82% expressed concerns “about AI’s societal impact,” and roughly 66% confirmed believing “that AI could one day go to war with humans.”

(Has the war already started? On the music side, a quick-growing AI-artist army is assaulting our ears. For the discerning fan in search of new music, the days of relaxing to algorithm-recommended tracks are little more than a distant memory. Now, the listener must remain vigilant of his or her audio surroundings as slop infiltrates playlists one song at a time.)

Meanwhile, notwithstanding the mentioned 90% figure, 75% made clear that they “don’t want it [AI] anywhere near their media and entertainment,” according to iHeart, which acknowledged as well the results’ 2% margin of error.

To state the obvious, in general, survey data should be taken with a grain of salt. (If one of the many artificial intelligence-related studies spamming DMN’s inbox is to be believed, approximately 75 million American adults have had a romantic relationship with an AI. The total certainly seems high, and for the world’s sake, let’s hope it isn’t accurate.)

Nevertheless, the information is noteworthy against the backdrop of AI tracks’ proliferation; the study isn’t the only evidence indicating that machine-generated audio won’t replace human authenticity and the inherent artistic merit of works crafted by qualified professionals.

But that doesn’t mean it won’t render proper music harder to find on streaming due to AI releases’ sheer volume.

Thus far, DSPs haven’t had the foresight to ban or (with the exception of Deezer) label AI tracks. Though Spotify has seemingly paused new album releases for The Velvet Sundown, for instance, the self-described “synthetic music project” has apparently been “collaborating” with other “artists” that some are describing as AI-powered.

Taking a moment to click through those guest appearances reveals an intricate web of presumably non-human profiles with a sizable pile of tracks, a number of monthly listeners, and millions upon millions of cumulative streams to their credit. And this is, of course, the tip of the iceberg.

A longer-term consideration: Radio is for obvious reasons more resistant to AI music, which would undoubtedly elicit listener complaints if given even a bit of airtime.