Spotify will take a new step to identify content linked to artificial intelligence. The music streaming platform will begin to introduce in mid-September a label called «AI Persona», intended to indicate the profiles of artists whose identity has been created through artificial intelligence.
The goal is to offer users a clear signal that allows them to distinguish between real artists and artificially generated musical characters. The measure comes after the increase in profiles that use names, images, and biographies created with AI and that can present themselves to listeners as if they corresponded to real people. (Le Matin)
The new label will appear in different spaces on Spotify, including the artist's profile, search results, and playlists. In this way, the user will be able to know that behind a certain artistic identity there is not necessarily a real person.
Spotify will not label all music created with AI
The company has specified that the new system does not intend to determine whether a specific song has been created wholly or partially through artificial intelligence. The label focuses on the identity of the artist.
This means that a human musician who uses AI tools during the production process of a song will not be automatically classified as «AI Persona». The label is aimed at cases where the artist themselves or their public identity have been generated artificially. (The Verge)
Creators will be able to voluntarily declare that they are artists generated through AI via Spotify for Artists. At the same time, the platform will have review systems to detect profiles that may correspond to artificial identities.
Spotify will combine technological tools with human review and will pay special attention to profiles that reach a significant audience volume. If it considers that an identity has been generated artificially, it may incorporate the corresponding label. Artists will also have the option to appeal the decision if they believe they have been incorrectly identified. (Cinco Días)
Artists identified by AI will be excluded from recommendations
The new policy will also have consequences on the visibility of these profiles. Spotify has announced that the music associated with accounts identified as "AI Persona" will be excluded, by default, from its editorial and personalized recommendations.
The company thus seeks to prevent algorithms from automatically promoting artificial profiles to users who have not expressly searched for or followed them. Listeners who choose to voluntarily follow one of these artists will be able to continue accessing their music. (Télérama)
The decision represents a significant change in the way streaming platforms address the growth of music generated through artificial intelligence. Spotify has millions of artist profiles and receives a growing volume of content produced or assisted by AI tools.
The rise of virtual artists
The phenomenon has already generated controversies in the music industry. Some profiles have managed to gather hundreds of thousands of listeners without a conventional artistic trajectory behind them.
One of the cases that has fueled the debate is that of The Velvet Sundown, a project that surpassed one million monthly listeners on Spotify and whose identity raised doubts precisely due to the absence of a conventional public trajectory and the use of visual elements associated with artificial intelligence. (The Guardian)
The problem is not limited to the emergence of completely artificial artists. Artificial intelligence is also being used to create voices, images, covers, and other elements associated with real musicians. This is compounded by cases of identity theft, in which songs are published under the names of artists without their authorization.
Spotify has already adopted other measures to increase transparency. In April, it presented the badge "Verified by Spotify", intended to identify artist profiles that have been reviewed and meet certain criteria of authenticity and trust. (Spotify)
The new label "AI Persona" now introduces the opposite movement: not confirming that a real person exists behind a profile, but warning the user when the artistic identity they are viewing has been generated artificially.
With this strategy, Spotify aims to address one of the main difficulties posed by the expansion of artificial intelligence in music: that users can know who —or what— is really behind the music they listen to.