27 music companies signed IFPI's anti-fraud pledge. DistroKid and TuneCore didn't.

IFPI launched the Streaming Integrity Initiative on September 14, 2026, with 27 companies signed on and 5 commitments that land squarely on music distributors. Those companies agree to verify who is uploading, vet what gets uploaded for infringement and what IFPI calls AI-related risks, act against repeat offenders, and share intelligence with their competitors. The names missing from the list are as informative as the names on it.

DistroKid is not there. Neither is Believe or its TuneCore platform, nor TikTok’s SoundOn, nor UnitedMasters. Between them they handle a large share of the independent upload volume this initiative is designed to filter.

What distributors actually commit to under the Streaming Integrity Initiative

The 5 commitments in IFPI’s announcement are practical rather than aspirational, which is the interesting part.

Distributors agree to verify rights ownership and customer identities through Know Your Customer checks. KYC is the identity-verification process banks use before opening an account, and importing it into music distribution means proving you are who you say you are before your track reaches Spotify.

They also agree to vet content for infringement, fraudulent activity and AI-related risks. They agree to detect, investigate and act on suspected fraud, including against people who keep coming back. They agree to share intelligence with rivals where the law allows it, so a banned uploader cannot simply move to the next service. And they agree to keep measuring and strengthening those systems.

IFPI has not defined what an AI-related risk is, which leaves the one AI-specific clause doing less work than it appears to.

Who signed IFPI’s anti-fraud pledge, and who stayed out

All 3 major label groups are in: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group, plus their distribution arms ADA, AWAL, The Orchard and Virgin Music Group. HYBE signed. So did the trade bodies Merlin, IMPALA and WIN.

The independent distributors are a real list: Absolute Label Services, CD Baby, CmdShft, Ditto Music, FUGA, GoDigital, IDOL, InnerCat Music Group, Redeye, Revelator, RouteNote, Secretly Distribution, SonoSuite, Symphonic, Too Lost and Zebralution.

The gap is at the DIY end. DistroKid, Believe and TuneCore, SoundOn and UnitedMasters are the services a first-time uploader is most likely to use, and none of them signed. IFPI is openly inviting them, and Music Ally noted they should be the priority targets given their share of independent volume.

Why no streaming service joined at launch

Not one DSP is on the list. Spotify, Amazon Music and SoundCloud are members of the Music Fights Fraud Alliance, a separate body that launched in 2023 and has been quiet since April 2026.

That older alliance has something this one lacks: DistroKid, Believe and TuneCore, and UnitedMasters are all in it, alongside CD Baby, Ditto, FUGA, Revelator, Symphonic and Too Lost. So the industry now has two overlapping anti-fraud groups, each missing what the other has, and no stated plan for how they work together.

The practical effect is that the commitments sit entirely upstream. Distributors get the obligations. The platforms where fraudulent streams are actually counted and paid out have signed nothing.

What streaming fraud costs, and why AI made it easier

The scale problem is not theoretical. Michael Smith pleaded guilty in 2026 to running hundreds of thousands of AI-generated tracks through bot accounts and collecting roughly $10m in royalties. Deezer now detects tens of thousands of fully AI-generated tracks a day.

Streaming royalties come out of a shared pool. Every fraudulent play takes a slice of the same pot that pays everyone else, which is why Oakley framed it the way she did.

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Streaming fraud misleads fans and deprives legitimate artists and songwriters of income that should rightfully flow to them. This is theft, plain and simple.

Symphonic CEO Jorge Brea made a related point earlier this year: the bigger risk AI created was how cheap it became to launch a distributor with no standards behind it. A voluntary pledge signed by the companies that already have those standards does not reach the ones that never built them.

Merlin’s Director of Content Integrity Sarah McNabb said the commitments reflect what Merlin already requires of its members, which is a fair description of the whole list. Most of these companies were doing this anyway. The test is whether the names still missing decide to join.

If you release music, the near-term change is at signup. Expect more distributors to ask for identity documents before your first upload clears, and expect the vetting step to get slower before it gets faster.