Spotify to distinguish AI artists from real people – and stop recommending them
Music streaming platform creates ‘AI persona’ label that will appear on profiles and track listings in crackdown on fake performers Spotify is to label AI artists and exclude them from algorithm recommendations as part of a crackdown on fake performers. The world’s largest music streaming platform is creating a label for AI-generated artist identities called “AI personas” that will appear on the…
Spotify is set to introduce a new label for AI-generated artists, marking them as "AI personas" and preventing them from appearing in personalized recommendations. This move is part of the company's efforts to combat the proliferation of fake performers in the music streaming landscape. The "AI personas" label will be prominently displayed on the artist's profile and on track listings on playlists.
Starting in September, AI-generated artists, such as the Velvet Sundown, will be required to carry this label and will not be recommended to users by default. The primary goal is to maintain trust and ensure that listeners can differentiate between real and AI-generated artists. Spotify's decision comes after a surge in AI-created music, leading to the removal of 75 million spam tracks from its platform over the past year.
The company asserts that human review and AI investigative tools will be employed to determine the authenticity of artists. While the new rule primarily targets AI identities, Spotify emphasizes that AI-generated profiles often conceal AI-made tracks. The Velvet Sundown, a 70s-style US rock band, serves as a recent example of this issue.
Despite having 117,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, the band's profile does not clearly indicate its AI origins. The artist describes their musical project as "synthetic," blending elements of human and machine-generated music. In January, Spotify faced scrutiny over Sienna Rose, a soul singer who surged onto the platform's viral top 50 without any trace of live performances or videos.
The artist's Spotify profile remains ambiguous about her AI status, with more than half a million monthly listeners.
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