Artificial intelligence has proven to be a creative enabler, though also a headache when it comes to protecting intellectual property rights. And for some, like Spotify, it is both. Even as the platform takes pains to accommodate AI-powered bands like The Velvet Sundown it is simultaneously “waging war” against content-farmed AI tunes. In the past 12 months Spotify says it has removed over 75 million spammy tracks. Now it is rolling out an even more robust spam filtering system while stepping up enforcement of impersonations and mandating AI disclosures for music with industry-standard credits.

“Music has always been shaped by technology — from multitrack tape and synthesizers to digital audio workstations and AutoTune,” Spotify explains in a newsroom post announcing the changes. “We envision a future where artists and producers are in control of how or if they incorporate AI into their creative processes,” leaving that choice to the maestros while doing its best to prevent deception and provide listeners with transparency.

“New protections include a policy to police unauthorized vocal impersonation (‘deepfakes’) and fraudulent music uploaded to artists’ official profiles; an enhanced spam filter to prevent mass uploads, duplicates, SEO hacks, artificially short tracks designed to fraudulently boost streaming numbers and payments,” Variety reports.

TechCrunch says Spotify is working with a new AI-focused credit system called DDEX. The not-for-profit is led by a consortium of music industry “CMOs, record companies and digital service providers to create digital music value chain standards,” per a Music Business Association press release that adds DDEX is free.

“The use of AI is going to be a spectrum,” with artists and producers incorporating it in different parts of their workflow, TechCrunch quotes Spotify Global Head of Marketing and Policy Sam Duboff stating. The DDEX standard will allow for “nuanced disclosures,” Duboff added, saying “it won’t force tracks into a false binary where a song either has to be categorically AI or not AI at all,” TechCrunch reports.

“AI-generated music is deluging streaming services,” according to Rolling Stone, which notes “Spotify competitor Deezer has said that approximately 28 percent of daily uploads are fully AI-generated” (but only account for 0.5 percent of actual streams).

The Velvet Sundown is described by the Berklee School of Music as a legit AI “music project” that in the space of a few months has “released three albums and garnered over 1.4 million monthly listeners via its verified Spotify account.”

“At its best, AI is unlocking incredible new ways for artists to create music,” says Spotify. “At its worst, bad actors push ‘slop.’”

Related:
Chicago Musicians Leave Spotify Over Concerns About Data Privacy and AI, Chicago Sun-Times, 9/25/25
Artists Are Leaving Spotify to Protest CEO’s Military AI Investments, The Washington Post, 9/25/25
Bon Iver Side Project’s Spotify Page Features an AI Slop Song, Futurism, 9/26/25