The new regulations and technical solutions that Spotify has come up with are being introduced immediately and will be rolled out to the service's 700 million users in the coming days.
Spotify notes that AI music is a problem that disrupts the user experience, among other things by the service receiving large amounts of "junk music" that also generates revenue that would otherwise go to "real" artists.
Just in the past year, we have removed 75 million AI tracks, says Charlie Hellman, Global Head of Music Vertical at Spotify.
Stops "deepfakes"
Spotify is now doing three main things to handle the influx of AI music.
Firstly, stricter rules against fraud and identity theft will stop AI tracks that claim to come from well-known artists, so-called "deepfakes".
Additionally, a stronger spam filter is being introduced, which will remove various types of music that are AI-generated or intended to manipulate the system, for example by being extremely similar to other songs or "junk tracks", created only to try to milk Spotify for revenue based on the number of streams.
Transparency
Spotify says it is not entirely against AI in music. They have noted that many artists want to be able to use the technology to create their tracks. So established creators can continue to use AI, as long as they are clear about it.
But we want to prevent those who want to manipulate the system and we can only take advantage of the positive aspects of AI if we introduce robust protection against the negative aspects, says Charlie Hellman.
Spotify wants to be transparent to users. Therefore, the third step in the fight against AI is a system with AI labeling of music.
Under the tab where the song's creators are listed, it will be possible to note if AI has been involved in the creation. This is intended to become a new standard for the music industry and several of the world's largest record labels and music publishers have already agreed to use the system.
In the spring of 2023, the song "Heart on my sleeve" suddenly appeared, an AI-generated duet with Drake and The Weeknd, without permission, which managed to get 20 million streams in two days before it was taken down.
In the summer of 2025, the band The Velvet Sundown's melodic 70's rock got over 1 million streams on Spotify. Soon, suspicions arose that the band was completely AI-generated and in July, the people behind the project came forward and confirmed the information.
In the fall of 2024, the previously released cult song "Visa dina tuttar" in a new dance band version became viral on Spotify in Sweden. Soon, it turned out that the song had been rearranged by a producer who called himself AI Music Dreams, entirely with the help of AI.
Contrary to what many believe, creators do not get paid an exact amount for each time a song is played on a streaming service like Spotify.
Instead, the payment model works so that all revenue that Spotify receives in a month, for example, is put into a pot that is distributed to each creator depending on the proportion of plays in relation to the total number of listens on Spotify during that period.
If the person who creates AI-generated music manages to manipulate the system, gets played on Spotify, and gets to take part in the revenue from the pot, the proportion that is distributed to "real" artists will of course be less.
The compensation also varies from country to country, with higher amounts for plays in Europe and North America and lower in other parts of the world.
