Spotify will label AI personas and curb recommendations

Spotify will begin labelling AI-generated artist identities as “AI personas” on profiles, search results and track listings, while excluding them from personalised recommendations by default. The policy is due to take effect from September and is intended to separate synthetic performer profiles from real musicians who could lose streams to artificial rivals.

The company said trust and authenticity are central to artist-fan relationships, particularly as generative AI makes fake performers easier to create. Spotify will allow creators to disclose when an identity is AI-created, but it will also use human review and AI investigative tools rather than relying only on self-reporting.

The move follows a surge of synthetic and spam music on the service. Last year Spotify said it had removed 75m spam tracks over a 12-month period, while its legitimate catalogue stands at 100m tracks. Recent cases include the Velvet Sundown, a 70s-style rock act with 117,000 monthly listeners, and Sienna Rose, a soul singer who entered Spotify’s viral top 50 after releasing a prolific burst of material over a 10-week period and now has more than half a million monthly listeners.