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Spotify adds 'Verified' badges to distinguish human artists from AI

bbc.com

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Re: Spotify adds 'Verified' badges to distinguish human artists from AI

#11

Post by coldpie »

dlivingston wrote: post #4

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 alt…

> Can Spotify actually become human- and artist-first?

No, it can't. Its founder Daniel Ek is a war profiteer. He is by definition anti-human.

Spotify itself is actively anti-artist. It has the lowest pay rates in the industry and is embracing AI replacing humans so they can pay humans even less.

Stop using it and vote with your wallet. Literally any alternative you choose is an improvement for artists over Spotify.

If you are strict about anti-AI, you might find Bandcamp appealing. https://blog.bandcamp.com/2026/01/13/keeping-bandcamp-human/

More info:

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/a-complete-guide-to-quit...

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/artists-le...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Spotify

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ek

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsing_(company)

Re: Spotify adds 'Verified' badges to distinguish human artists from AI

#12

Post by reconnecting »

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...

Re: Spotify adds 'Verified' badges to distinguish human artists from AI

#13

Post by kotaKat »

reconnecting wrote: post #12

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…

That's every move Spotify has done recently.

Podcasts, audiobooks, AI music, and now an entire fitness hub - they really don't want to pay actual artists anything for their music while jacking up prices for everyone else.

(Oh, and sitting back and crying "app fairness" for quite some time, but it's odd that they haven't been complaining about Apple in a hot minute in the DSA fight yet still won't ship long overdue support like AirPlay 2...)

Re: Spotify adds 'Verified' badges to distinguish human artists from AI

#17

Post by Semaphor »

coldpie wrote: post #11
dlivingston wrote: post #4

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 alt…

> Can Spotify actually become human- and artist-first? No, it can't. Its founder Daniel Ek is a war profiteer. He is by definition anti-human. Spotify itself is actively anti-artist. It has the lowest pay rates in the industry and is embracing AI replacing humans so they can pay humans even less. Stop using it and vote with your wallet. Literally any alternative you choose is an improvement for artists over Spotify.…

Big Bandcamp fan, I get almost all my music from there. But their AI removal (well, or piracy removal for that matter) is rather lacking. Any action takes over a week, sometimes more. Just like with clear piracy (pre release leaks have been up for months), and when they do, they just remove it, whoever bought it is out of luck.

I love the site, but they have a long way to go.

Re: Spotify adds 'Verified' badges to distinguish human artists from AI

#18

Post by [deleted] »

reconnecting wrote: post #12

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…

[deleted]

Re: Spotify adds 'Verified' badges to distinguish human artists from AI

#20

Post by mjr00 »

reconnecting wrote: post #12

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…

> The more appropriate question is why they published a AI artist at all.

Because they allow anyone to upload to Spotify. There's nothing stopping me, you, or anyone from generating AI tracks with Suno & friends, downloading them, and using a service like LANDR or Amuse to distribute them to Spotify, all for free.

> Like Spotify owns distribution, their largest investor Tencent Music Entertainment Group publishes AI-generated music = almost infinite profit.

This assumes that real people are listening to AI-generated music which does not seem to be the case. According to Deezer, 85% of streams on AI-generated music are fraudulent.[0] It's largely a vanity ouroboros where someone with more money than sense generates a song, pays bots to get fraudulent streams, and uses those streams to generate vanity metrics. Consumers are by and large not listening to AI generated music.

[0] https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/20/deezer-says-44-of-songs-up...

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