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The future of the music industry is being written, and we believe that aggressively protecting against the worst parts of Gen AI is essential to enabling its potential for artists and producers.<\/span><\/p>\n We envision a future where artists and producers are in control of how or if they incorporate AI into their creative processes. As always, we leave those creative decisions to artists themselves while continuing our work to protect them against spam, impersonation, and deception, and providing listeners with greater transparency about the music they hear.<\/span><\/p>\n This journey isn\u2019t new to us. We\u2019ve invested massively in fighting spam over the past decade. In fact, in the past 12 months alone, a period marked by the explosion of generative AI tools, we\u2019ve removed over 75 million spammy tracks from Spotify.<\/span><\/p>\n AI technology is evolving fast, and we\u2019ll continue to roll out new policies frequently. Here is where we are focusing our policy work today:<\/span><\/p>\n The issue:<\/b> We\u2019ve always had a policy against deceptive content. But AI tools have made generating vocal deepfakes of your favorite artists easier than ever before.<\/span><\/p>\n What we\u2019re announcing: <\/b>We\u2019ve introduced a new <\/span>impersonation policy<\/span><\/a> that clarifies how we handle claims about AI voice clones (and other forms of unauthorized vocal impersonation), giving artists stronger protections and clearer recourse. Vocal impersonation is only allowed in music on Spotify when the impersonated artist has authorized the usage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re also ramping up our investments to protect against another impersonation tactic\u2014where uploaders fraudulently deliver music (AI-generated or otherwise) to another artist\u2019s profile across streaming services. We\u2019re testing new prevention tactics with leading artist distributors to equip them to better stop these attacks at the source. On our end, we\u2019ll also be investing more resources into our <\/span>content mismatch<\/span><\/a> process, reducing the wait time for review, and enabling artists to report \u201cmismatch\u201d even in the pre-release state.<\/span><\/p>\n Why it matters:<\/b> Unauthorized use of AI to clone an artist\u2019s voice exploits their identity, undermines their artistry, and threatens the fundamental integrity of their work. Some artists may choose to license their voices to AI projects\u2014and that\u2019s their choice to make. Our job is to do what we can to ensure that the choice stays in their hands.<\/span><\/p>\n The issue:<\/b> Total music payouts on Spotify have grown from $1B in 2014 to $10B in 2024. But big payouts entice bad actors. Spam tactics such as mass uploads, duplicates, SEO hacks, artificially short track abuse, and other forms of slop have become easier to exploit as AI tools make it simpler for anyone to generate large volumes of music.<\/span><\/p>\n What we\u2019re announcing:<\/b> This fall, we\u2019ll roll out a new music spam filter\u2014a system that will identify uploaders and tracks engaging in these tactics, tag them, and stop recommending them. We want to be careful to ensure we\u2019re not penalizing the wrong uploaders, so we\u2019ll be rolling the system out conservatively over the coming months and continue to add new signals to the system as new schemes emerge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why it matters: <\/b>Left unchecked, these behaviors can dilute the royalty pool and impact attention for artists playing by the rules. Our new music spam filter will protect against this behavior and help prevent spammers from generating royalties that could be otherwise distributed to professional artists and songwriters.<\/span><\/p>\n The issue:<\/b> Many listeners want more information about what they\u2019re listening to and the role of AI technology in the music they stream. And, for artists who are responsibly using AI tools in their creation processes, there\u2019s no way on streaming services for them to share if and how they\u2019re using AI. We know the use of AI tools is increasingly a spectrum, not a binary, where artists and producers may choose to use AI to help with some parts of their productions and not others. The industry needs a nuanced approach to AI transparency, not to be forced to classify every song as either \u201cis AI\u201d or \u201cnot AI.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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Stronger impersonation rules<\/b><\/h2>\n
Music spam filter<\/b><\/h2>\n
AI disclosures for music with industry-standard credits<\/b><\/h2>\n