Spotify will introduce a special label for artists created using artificial intelligence and exclude them from personalized recommendations. In this way, the streaming service plans to fight fake artists and help users distinguish them from real musicians.
For such artists, Spotify will create a separate “AI character” label. It will be displayed on the artists’ profiles and next to their compositions in playlists.
The new rules will come into effect in September. The profiles of artists created using AI, including The Velvet Sundown, will receive the appropriate labeling. In addition, their compositions will not be included in personalized algorithmic recommendations by default.
Spotify explained that the innovation should help listeners distinguish between real musicians and AI-created artists who can compete for their listening.
The problem of a large amount of artificially created music on the platform has worsened along with the development of generative AI. Last year, Spotify reported that it had removed 75 million spam tracks in 12 months. For comparison, the service’s main music catalog has about 100 million songs.
Music authors will be able to independently notify Spotify that an artist’s image was created using artificial intelligence. After that, their profile will receive the “AI character” label.
At the same time, the service will not rely only on information from the authors themselves. Spotify will also use expert verification and AI-based tools to determine whether a particular artist is a real person.
Formally, the new rules apply specifically to AI-created artist images, and not to all music created using artificial intelligence. However, Spotify notes that such artificial profiles are typically created specifically for distributing AI-generated compositions.