Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming platform, is introducing a new label for AI-generated artist identities, to be known as “AI personas”. This label will be visible on artist profiles and track listings within playlists.
From next month, artists identified as AI-generated, such as the Velvet Sundown, will carry this persona label and will be automatically excluded from personalised recommendations. This initiative aims to distinguish these artists from human performers and prevent them from potentially losing streams to artificial rivals.
Spotify stated that "True artist-fan connection can only be built on a foundation of trust and authenticity," adding that listeners need to trust the artist's identity, especially in the age of generative AI. The company will not rely solely on self-disclosure for identification, instead employing human review and AI investigative tools to determine if artists are fake.
Last year, Spotify removed 75 million spam tracks from its platform over a 12-month period, attributing this to a surge of fake music created by AI tools. The platform's legitimate catalogue currently contains 100 million tracks.