AC\/DC once sang that \u201cRock and Roll Ain\u2019t Noise Pollution,\u201d but for Spotify, AI-generated spam is definitely pollution. Spotify has removed 75 million \u201cspammy\u201d tracks in the last 12 months, a number big enough to make your head spin like a vinyl record.<\/p>\n
In Spotify\u2019s announcement<\/a> on Sept. 25, the firm revealed a series of AI policies aimed at stopping unauthorized AI voice clones, spam, and the lack of transparency around AI-generated music.<\/p>\n \u201cAt its best, AI is unlocking incredible new ways for artists to create music and for listeners to discover it. At its worst, AI can be used by bad actors and content farms to confuse or deceive listeners, push \u2018slop\u2019 into the ecosystem, and interfere with authentic artists working to build their careers. That kind of harmful AI content degrades the user experience for listeners and often attempts to divert royalties to bad actors,\u201d explained Spotify.<\/p>\n This is not a policy tweak; it is Spotify finally moving on a crisis that has been building for months. And with rival platform Deezer<\/a> reporting more than 30,000 fully AI-generated tracks arriving daily, the timing is in tune with the public\u2019s need for genuine music.<\/p>\n \u201cOne is the loneliest number that you\u2019ll ever do. Two can be as bad as one. It\u2019s the loneliest number since the number one.\u201d<\/p>\n Those lyrics of Harry Nilsson show wisdom, and Spotify\u2019s new framework also shows good judgment, and goes higher than one or two. Spotify is targeting AI abuse through three measures that kick in immediately.<\/p>\n First, Spotify is rolling out a new music spam filter that spots mass uploaders, duplicates, and SEO gaming. Bad actors get tagged, and their junk music stops getting pushed to listeners.<\/p>\n Second, Spotify is strengthening its impersonation policy to explicitly ban unauthorized AI voice clones, deepfakes, and vocal impersonation. The company clarified that vocal impersonation is allowed only when the impersonated artist has authorized it, which gives artists clearer protection and a path to action.<\/p>\n The third pillar is transparency through standardized labeling. Spotify is working with DDEX to build a new metadata standard for disclosing AI use in music creation, with more than 15 labels and distributors already on board.<\/p>\n The scale here is wild, or we could call it a \u201cWalk on the Wild Side\u201d if Lou Reed was writing this news report. Beyond Spotify\u2019s 75 million removed tracks, Deezer\u2019s data shows that up to 70% of plays for fully AI-generated tracks have been detected as fraudulent. Fake artists, fake streams, real money.<\/p>\n Sam Duboff, Spotify\u2019s global head of marketing and policy, revealed that tracks appearing to be entirely created through generative AI represent a \u201cminimal\u201d level of engagement right now.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really a small percentage of streams. In general, when the music doesn\u2019t take much effort to create, it tends to be low quality and doesn\u2019t find an audience,\u201d said Duboff.<\/p>\n The fraud potential, though, is enormous. And with Spotify\u2019s total music payouts growing from $1 billion in 2014 to $10 billion in 2024, the incentive to flood platforms with low-quality content is obvious.<\/p>\n The new DDEX standard enables detailed AI disclosures, including information about AI-generated vocals, AI instrumentation, and AI-assisted post-production that can appear in credits across Spotify and any service using the standard.<\/p>\n Universal Music Group welcomed Spotify\u2019s announcement<\/a>, calling the measures important steps that include content filtering, infringement checks, and penalties for infringers.<\/p>\n For artists working in good faith (or \u201cTrue Faith\u201d if you\u2019re a fan of New Order), Spotify emphasized in earlier statements that it is not here to punish authentic and responsible AI use; the aim is to let artists get more creative while blocking the worst behavior.<\/p>\n The immediate impact is already visible. Spotify is investing more resources in its content mismatch process, cutting review wait times and letting artists report mismatch even before release. That matters when bad actors try to slip music onto someone else\u2019s profile across services.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, the new spam filter will be rolled out over the coming months, with new signals added as schemes pop up. The goal is to protect the music ecosystem, keep royalty pools from being quietly siphoned, and direct attention on artists playing by the rules.<\/p>\n If all that works, then feel free to play \u201cGood Times\u201d by Chic on repeat.<\/p>\n The post Spotify Removes 75M AI Spam Tracks in Major Crackdown<\/a> appeared first on eWEEK<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AC\/DC once sang that \u201cRock and Roll Ain\u2019t Noise Pollution,\u201d but for Spotify, AI-generated spam is definitely pollution. Spotify has removed 75 million \u201cspammy\u201d tracks in the last 12 months, a number big enough to make your head spin like a vinyl record. In Spotify\u2019s announcement on Sept. 25, the firm revealed a series of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Three tracks in Spotify\u2019s plan<\/h2>\n
The AI music invasion<\/h2>\n
What this means for artists and the music industry<\/h2>\n