AI is changing the way music is made and shared around the world, and Afrobeats, one of the fastest-growing genres in the world, is no different. Here is what the news and industry data say is happening.
Famous AI-Remixed Songs
1. Fave’s “Intentions” (AI Choir Remix / Urban Chords): An unauthorized AI-made choir rendition of Nigerian artist Fave’s song “Intentions” went viral on TikTok in 2025. The group that made it was called Urban Chords. Instead of taking it down, Fave recorded over the AI arrangement and put it out as an official remix. This was the first time an artist and AI worked together on a project.
2. Chill77, Unjaps – “Papaoutai (Afro Soul Version): This song, which was uploaded on December 21, 2025, is totally AI-generated and is credited to Chill77 and Unjaps. The copyright is held by UnjapsAB. It got over 14 million streams on Spotify, and hundreds of creators have used it on different platforms. Many listeners heard it through algorithms that didn’t make it clear that the voice was from an AI.
The AI Detection Issue
A 2025 survey by Deezer and Ipsos with 9,000 people from eight countries indicated that 97% of them could not reliably tell the difference between music manufactured by AI and music made by people. Deezer also said that it gets 30,000 entirely AI-generated tunes every day, which is more than 28% of its total daily music intake.
Making Afrobeats with AI Tools
With platforms like Suno and Udio, anyone may make complete tunes from text prompts. A big problem is that more than 85% of AI training data comes from the Global North, and less than 6% covers non-Western genres. This means that imitations typically overlook cultural context.
The creative sector in Nigeria employs 4.2 million people. In 2024, Spotify paid Nigerian and South African artists $59 million in royalties, with Nigeria getting the bigger part. The number of Nigerian musicians that made ₦10 million ($6,500) or more via Spotify doubled from 2023 to 2024. Without the right licensing systems in place, AI corporations may train models on African music catalogs without paying musicians. AI imitations could even steal royalties from legitimate creators.
Responses from the platform
In September 2025, Spotify published a policy on voice impersonation that required artists to give permission for voice cloning, a spam filter for mass or duplicate uploads, and an AI disclosure standard that was created by DDEX. But disclosure is still optional and only shows up in track credits. Spotify said it has deleted more than 75 million spam tracks in the past year, but it would neither ban or lower the rank of AI-generated music.
Legal Precedent
A major example: a TikTok user used AI to copy Drake and The Weeknd’s voices and made a song that got millions of views on TikTok before Universal Music Group asked for it to be taken down from all platforms, saying it was an infringement of intellectual property.
Imagine if there is a world filled with AI musicians, would there still be a concert? Or seeing robots replacing your favorite artists at concerts 😂? What’s it gonna be?
