alt Hacker NewsSpotify adds 'Verified' badges to distinguish human artists from AI
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I might be in the minority, but I think this anti-AI sentiment is going to be generational. The next AI-native generation to grow up creating AI music, photos, videos, literature, code, etc will think it's silly why the older generation is so appalled at what they created and resistant to using AI to do it
I'm not placing a value judgement either way, but I do think there will be a divide in the ways things are done largely by generation. Both sides will have their arguments for why they do things the way they do it
I do wonder why AI music is so lame. Every previous technological advancement in music produced amazing new sounds and styles but AI music seems to just be emulating lowest common denominator pop sludge. Where's the Bruce Haack or Kraftwerk of AI? Surely there's a previously unimaginable sound palette out there that we could be pulling from. Why is it all so BAD?
The headline makes this seem like they're labeling AI music, but it's actually just a scammer filter. Spotify is just making their internal anti-bot flags public-facing.
I was at a department store recently and heard a song I hadn't heard before. There was something strange about the singer's voice, and for a moment I wondered if it was AI generated.
Then I realized, I already can't tell the difference. It already might be! (Probably not, but you never know... maybe they put Spotify on autoplay ;)
Strange times.
I’m be been using the publishing year on Spotify to determine whether or not a song is AI generated, or not.
Anything before 2023 is most certainly from a human
Too late for me. I was on Spotify since 2013 and switched to Qobuz due to AI, bad recs, and dislike for the company. Qobuz puts much more effort into manual curation so I still find awesome weird music and have encountered 0 AI. Mainly due to not relying on recommendation algos anymore. I'm sure there is still AI in there. Only issue I've encountered is an annoying playback bug when switching from wifi to data.
Can I have a way to exclude all AI-generated music from my recommended songs as well?
Doesn't this only verify against content farms, not AI in general (i.e. I can get verified after making all the AI slop I want, as long as my human name is attached to it)?
Can Spotify actually become human- and artist-first? Remember the magic of 8Tracks community made playlists? Those were incredible. And compared to Spotify's alternative of AI-generated playlists, AI-prompt-driven playlists, and AI DJs? _Yuck!_
Can I manage a catalogue of albums in Spotify without getting thrown into my playlist's list? Can I get extra content with my albums, like iTunes used to do? Behind the scenes, session tracks, lyric books and session photos?
Spotify, of all places, should be a refuge for artists and a place to celebrate human creativity. It is SO COMPLETELY the opposite of that, from top to bottom.
I think this is just a tough spot for any of these kinds of companies to be in. It's easy to suggest that they should just ban or allow filtering out AI content, but the problem isn't that easy to deal with. Adding a manual "AI generated" tag stops being useful as soon a negative consequence exists for using it.
It brings to mind the issues with AI content on Pixiv. They added this tag and then made it possible to have AI generated stuff not shown to you. So, now, it's pretty common for users to not tag their AI content, and it's pretty hard for companies to keep up with the flood.
If they want to remain open to small time artists, they don't really have any choice besides labeling the artists they know to not be AI.
Didn't something like this already happen in the 1970/80s with pushback against synthesisers and electronic sounds?
This is a good start. I would like to see a standardized browser client header that could tell a site that if I see anything AI related I will block their domain and to disable all AI related crud. Similar in concept to the useless DNT header but instead NOAI so I do not have to be logged in to disable AI content on Youtube for example.
For the record I do not dislike all AI content. I enjoy the YT channels that non-stop create Templar Battle Hymns and Gregorian Chants [1]. My portable MP3 player is full of more than I could ever listen to. I just want to get rid of the AI news, AI upcoming movies and other propaganda.
AI helped me escape from my Spotify kidnap. The stack I use now: Docker, Lidarr, slskd, Tubifarry, Prowlarr, qBittorrent, Blissful and Soulmate. And Strawberry for playlists/playback. Shoutout to MusicBrainz.
Very happy to be rebuilding my music library. And this time no song will ever become unavailable out of the blue again.
I'm never going to repeat the mistake of migrating to streaming.
Oh no, should they add the verified badges to virtual singers or not? like Hatsune Miku https://open.spotify.com/artist/6pNgnvzBa6Bthsv8SrZJYl?si=kt...
Spotify pretending like they don’t want AI artists. Once you’re locked in, you won’t look, and they can make maximum ad $$$ and pay no one.
something i haven’t seen mentioned that might possibly be a way to recognise it would be the bitrate. an AI model is limited by the dataset it was trained on and i guarantee you it wasn’t trained on lossless datasets. as someone who is an audiophile with my setup it’s pretty easy to spot and pick out a terrible mix from a good mix with an R2R DAC that doesn’t make music sound more pleasant than it actually is the way most sigma DACs do
How much of it has to be AI for it to count as AI music? If a human wrote all the lyrics, does it fall somewhere along the “AI music spectrum”, as it were? And where does the cutoff lie?
Asking for a friend
Why not add "bot" badges to the AI music instead? Surely there's more humans than bots?
I think I’m ok with this but can you search for only AI? Might be interesting sometimes.
> With Spotify targeting AI-generated music and personas, some on social media have pointed out a verified account would only prove an artist was human, not that the music was made without utilising AI.
So how long before an AI requests the verified badge and gets it?
Can I specify "don't ever play/show me AI music" in my preferences? Then they can remove the badges also.
Just like we have today everything 'human centric', AI is going to build its own ecosystem. Someone will soon build, spotify for agents
"AI by default" is going to be really funny once it spreads everywhere creative. Panic begets panic...
There is no reason to even allow AI music on your platform. Instead of labeling, remove if identified as such. Such garbage.
Once Spotify has this AI metadata, I'd like a setting to hide AI "artists" from my recommendations and playlists.
Is there a global config to exclude all non-human generated contents in Spotify?
This is a good first step, but the badge only verifies the artist is human, not the music. The trend worth expanding is provenance for the work itself I expect human-made content to become a prized commodity once that signal is credible.
Someone should make a free streaming service that’s only AI music. I’m not that picky.
Do you have to pay for the verified badge? How much more rev do they get?
Can't we put the badges on AI instead?
On an off note, I do not get why moral puritans disparage the general public for listening to AI songs?
If they are "soulless" then they should close their ears rather than trying to maim others.
And what if a verified human artist uses AI for their music but doens't tell you about it?
how are people getting this AI music on Spotify? where are you finding it? for example the home recommendations for me today are The Beths, Big Thief, Geese, and Sleater-Kinney. and it is all albums I have already have listened to, but fine, whatever, that's just bad recommendations, not AI.
generally I use either the search box, which is always going to return the Geese album and not AI slop if I type "Getting Killed", or the library view on the left side, I don't think I've never seen an AI album on Spotify, where are you getting them?
put the onus on the people, of course. how about make AI music come with a warning label?
I would have expected a "un-verified" batch, this way they're giving AI "artists" legitimacy.
I'm sick and tired of everyone letting their political views govern everything they think.
Best new artist since the pandemic is AI Iran. I don't necessarily agree with their message, but the songs are good!
Take this song, it's just good hip hop no matter how you spin it: https://youtu.be/i0u_BNPOsMw?si=IQ49AkUM-4tFTqKX
I added two songs from an AI artist to my Liked Songs back when all this started. Now I've removed them and have spent the last 14 months trying to convince Spotify that I'm not interested in this artist. Meanwhile they keep plastering every new single this slop generator pumps out onto the front of my homescreen. Sometimes it's multiple releases per week. Absolutely infuriating.
I wish they would add this for Podcasts. I sometimes search for interviews with a certain person and some subject areas are now inundated with AI slop that is convincing enough I can get a couple minutes into it before I’ve realized I’m not listening to humans. I’m sure I’ll develop better intuitions but I sure wish I didn’t have to.
It's only a matter of time until streaming succumbs to slop, much like social media has. If it allows Spotify to reduce royalty payouts and attrition doesn't meaningfully increase, they'll keep supporting it. Meanwhile, real artists suffer and the rich get richer.
rutracker > spotify
What about auto tune? I know it's probably not officially AI, but it has the same effect of creating something that's not real.
If you accept public content then require the poster to declare if it’s AI or human.
There’s an assumption right now that “AI or human” must be inferred.
I think that’s wrong.
How would this even work though? I'm a real musician and producer/engineer. I've gone on tour, put out several albums, and so on. I've also been involved in the music business and worked with a bunch of really well-known artists.
I also have been playing with Suno like everyone else, and have made a whole bunch of songs that I think are hilarious that I've shared with my friends, where I write all the lyrics and detailed notes about what I want the song to be, and then AI does the rest.
I'm not going to post it to Spotify, but if I did, what am I on their list? Am I verified or not? I'm a real musician. I have rooms full of musical instruments that I can play, and I can send pictures of them, but how does that relate to this policy of theirs?
Right call
Great, now add the ability for me to have any non-Verified artists become completely invisible to me in the application.
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The more appropriate question is why they published a AI artist at all. I think Spotify (or its owners/investors) might actually benefit from recommending AI-generated music by not having to pay real artists.
Like Spotify owns distribution, their largest investor Tencent Music Entertainment Group publishes AI-generated music = almost infinite profit.
From news: Tencent Music demonstrated strong revenue (1) growth in Q4 2025, with total revenues increasing by 16% year-over-year.
CEO of Tencent Music stated, "Our robust revenue growth and expansion in non-subscription services highlight our strategic focus on diversifying revenue streams. However, we acknowledge the need to address earnings challenges to meet investor expectations."
1. https://www.investing.com/news/transcripts/earnings-call-tra...