Deezer raises its 2026 outlook as it readies a switch to hide AI-generated music

Deezer said on October 27, 2026, that third-quarter revenue rose 1.8% from a year earlier to €133.8 million, or 1.0% at constant currency, its second consecutive quarter of growth. The Euronext Paris-listed streaming service also raised its full-year outlook. It now expects 2026 revenue to grow slightly compared with 2025, where it had expected broadly stable revenue, and adjusted EBITDA to exceed €10 million, up from a previous forecast of simply positive.

Alongside the results, Deezer repeated its plan to add a toggle before the end of 2026 that removes fully AI-generated music from search results. It says it has detected and excluded more than 42 million AI-generated tracks from recommendations since January 2025 and has tagged more than 14 million albums.

We delivered revenue growth for a second consecutive quarter, supported by the continued expansion of our Direct business.

Where the growth came from

Direct revenue grew 7.0%, which Deezer put down to a larger average subscriber base. Direct subscribers rose 6.5% in France, helped by family plans, and 4.0% in the rest of the world. Partnerships revenue fell 6.2% as legacy distribution deals ran off: partnership subscribers dropped 17.1% to 2.9 million, although average revenue per user rose 16.7% to €3.7. Other revenue fell 19.5% after a content licensing agreement ended in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Revenue for the first nine months was €402.0 million, up 0.9%. For scale, Spotify reported third-quarter revenue of €5.0 billion on October 22, so Deezer's quarter was about 2.7% of its larger rival's (our calculation).

The AI filter

Deezer first announced the toggle on October 13. When it is switched on, AI-generated tracks, albums and the related artists will not appear in a user's search results; switching it off brings them back. Deezer cited a Deezer/Ipsos study from November 2025 in which 45% of music streaming users said they would like to filter out fully AI-generated music.

The volume of AI uploads has grown quickly. In July, Deezer said fully AI-generated tracks had passed half of all new music delivered to it on peak days in June 2026, at nearly 90,000 tracks a day. It said it would take down AI tracks used to generate fraudulent streams, and those that had not been streamed for six months or more.

Listening tells a different story from uploads. Deezer says fully AI-generated music accounts for only 1% to 3% of streams on the service, and that up to 85% of the streams those tracks generated in 2025 were fraudulent. It excludes manipulated streams from royalty payments.

What comes next

The toggle is due to reach users worldwide before the end of 2026. In the United States, the Copyright Office opened an inquiry into music streaming fraud on October 7 at the request of Congress, asking how bad actors commit it and what voluntary, statutory or regulatory fixes might work. Initial comments are due November 23, 2026, and replies December 21. Deezer will publish full-year 2026 results on March 17, 2027.