Spotify has removed more than 75 million “spammy tracks” from its platform over the past year, the streaming giant revealed today as it announced a suite of new policies for managing AI-generated content on its service.
The figure was disclosed during a press briefing where executives outlined a three-pronged approach to combat AI-enabled fraud while supporting legitimate artistic use of artificial intelligence tools.
“In the past 12 months alone, a period marked by the explosion of generative AI tools, we’ve removed over 75 million spammy tracks from Spotify,” the company confirmed in its official blog post announcing the measures.
The announcement comes as the streaming industry grapples with an unprecedented influx of AI-generated content.
Rival platform Deezer recently reported that it now receives over 30,000 fully AI-generated tracks daily, marking a sharp increase from the 20,000 figure it reported in April and the 10,000 it disclosed in January when it first launched its proprietary AI detection tool.
According to Deezer, up to 70% of plays for these fully AI-generated tracks have been detected as fraudulent, with the company filtering these streams out of royalty payments.
Spotify’s new framework comprises three key policies targeting different aspects of AI-related challenges, including:
- Improved enforcement of impersonation violations
- A new spam filtering system, and
- AI disclosures for music with “industry-standard credits”.
Spotify explained the reasoning behind the introduction of these measures in the blog post published today: “At its best, AI is unlocking incredible new ways for artists to create music and for listeners to discover it,” the company said.
It added: “At its worst, AI can be used by bad actors and content farms to confuse or deceive listeners, push ‘slop’ 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.
“The future of the music industry is being written, and we believe that aggressively protecting against the worst parts of Gen AI is essential to enabling its potential for artists and producers.”
Read more via Music Business Worldwide
