AI bots and deepfakes harm UK music industry and businesses
A Queen's University Belfast study reports that AI bots and deepfakes are harming the UK music industry and businesses by inflating metrics, facilitating ticket scams, and generating fraudulent web traffic. Musicians face marginalization while consumers waste money on fake tickets and businesses lose advertising efficiency to bot traffic, reportedly due to weak UK regulatory oversight compared to the EU and US.
What happened
Research from Queen's University Belfast found that AI bots and deepfake technology are being used maliciously across UK music platforms, streaming services, ticketing sites and social media. The study identified 'metric bots' that inflate social media metrics like likes and follows, and 'artificial musicians' combining deepfake technology with bots to create AI influencers.
Bots are moderating community notes sections on social media despite those sections being established to combat misinformation. Consumers have handed over large sums of money on secondary market ticketing platforms for concerts only to find the tickets never existed. More than half of all internet traffic now comes from bots, according to analysts, affecting businesses' ability to reach genuine customers.
Reported impact
Musicians are being 'squeezed out' and 'marginalised' from the music industry, with consumers and musicians reportedly being 'shortchanged' due to lack of controls over bot technology. Small businesses report wasting significant advertising budgets on bot traffic rather than genuine customer interactions, with one business owner reporting 30 to 40 percent of site visits as non-human.
Business owners said paying for advertising makes less sense when the audience is mostly automated bots. One mold remediation business owner estimated losing $600 to $700 per month from bot clicks on a $2,000 monthly advertising budget.
Index analysis
The UK music regulatory framework is 'woefully lagging behind' that of the EU and US in terms of transparency around malicious actors' use of bot technologies, according to the research. Bots are evolving to circumvent rules laid down by social media, music streaming and ticketing platforms, and social media platforms are described as 'incredibly secretive' about bot use.
Governance controls
Social media, music streaming and primary ticketing platforms have established protocols and safety measures, but bots continue to thrive in these online environments despite these controls. Informal 'buy and sell' groups on Facebook and secondary market platforms are described as 'highly unregulated'.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.