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TLDR: What happens when your favourite song isn\u2019t entirely human anymore? The new AI-music labels on Spotify could transform how we discover, trust, and value the songs we stream \u2014 raising big questions about creativity, authenticity, and who really makes the music we love.<\/em><\/p>\n Earlier this year, a band called The Velvet Sundown racked up hundreds of thousands of streams on Spotify with retro-pop tracks, generating a million monthly listeners on Spotify<\/a>. <\/p>\n But the band wasn\u2019t real. Every song, image, and even its back story<\/a>, had been generated by someone using generative AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n For some, it was a clever experiment. For others, it revealed a troubling lack of transparency in music creation<\/a>, even though the band\u2019s Spotify descriptor was later updated<\/a> to acknowledge it is composed with AI. <\/p>\n In September 2025, Spotify announced it is \u201chelping develop and will support the new industry standard for AI disclosures in music credits<\/a> developed through DDEX.\u201d DDEX is a not-for-profit<\/a> membership organization<\/a> focused on the creation of digital music value chain standards.<\/p>\n The company also says it\u2019s focusing work on improved enforcement of impersonation violations and a new spam-filtering system, and that updates are \u201cthe latest in a series of changes we\u2019re making to support a more trustworthy music ecosystem for artists, for rights-holders and for listeners.\u201d<\/p>\n As AI becomes more embedded in music creation, the challenge is balancing its legitimate creative use with the ethical and economic pressures it introduces. Disclosure is essential not just for accountability, but to give listeners transparent and user-friendly choices in the artists they support.<\/p>\n The music industry\u2019s response to AI has so far been a mix of ad hoc enforcement as platforms grapple with how to manage emerging uses and expectations of AI in music<\/a>.<\/p>\n Apple Music took aim at impersonation when it pulled the viral track \u201cHeart on My Sleeve\u201d featuring AI-cloned vocals of Drake and The Weeknd<\/a>. The removal was prompted by a copyright complaint reflecting concerns over misuse of artists\u2019 likeness and voice.<\/p>\nA patchwork of policies<\/h2>\n