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.
“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.”
Spotify
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.”
1. Improved enforcement of impersonation violations
Spotify is introducing a new impersonation policy that prohibits unauthorized AI voice clones, deepfakes, and any form of vocal replicas or impersonation. Spotify is also investing in preventing “content mismatches” – where fraudulent actors upload music to another artist’s profile across streaming services.
“Vocal impersonation is only allowed in music on Spotify when the impersonated artist has authorized the usage,” said Spotify today.
“Unauthorized use of AI to clone an artist’s voice exploits their identity, undermines their artistry, and threatens the fundamental integrity of their work.”
“We’re also ramping up our investments to protect against another impersonation tactic, where uploaders fraudulently deliver music (AI-generated or otherwise) to another artist’s profile across streaming services. We’re testing new prevention tactics with leading artist distributors to equip them to better stop these attacks at the source.”
Spotify added: “Unauthorized use of AI to clone an artist’s voice exploits their identity, undermines their artistry, and threatens the fundamental integrity of their work. Some artists may choose to license their voice to AI projects—and that’s their choice to make. Our job is to do what we can to ensure that the choice stays in their hands.”
2. A new spam filtering system
Second, Spotify is introducing a spam filter specifically designed to combat AI-enabled content manipulation.
The system will target accounts engaging in mass uploads, creating excessive duplicates with altered metadata, manipulating SEO, and uploading tracks just over 30 seconds to accumulate royalty-bearing streams.
“Our new spam filter will flag tracks and uploaders using these tactics and stop recommending them across Spotify programming,” said Sam Duboff, Global Head of Marketing and Policy for the Music Business during the press briefing.
3. AI disclosures for music with “industry-standard credits”.
Spotify also announced it is helping develop and will support “a new industry standard” for AI disclosures in music credits, developed through DDEX (Digital Data Exchange). This standard enables artists and rightsholders to clearly indicate where and how AI played a role in track creation – whether in AI-generated vocals, instrumentation, or post-production.
“As this information is submitted through labels, distributors, and music partners, we’ll begin displaying it across the app,” the company stated. “This change is about strengthening trust across the platform. It’s not about punishing artists who use AI responsibly or down ranking tracks for disclosing information about how they were made.”
The initiative has secured broad industry support, with Spotify working alongside partners including: Amuse, AudioSalad, Believe, CD Baby, DistroKid, Downtown Artist & Label Services, EMPIRE, Encoding Management Service – EMS GmbH, FUGA, IDOL, Kontor New Media, Labelcamp, NueMeta, Revelator, SonoSuite, Soundrop and Supply Chain.
“This industry standard will allow for more accurate, nuanced disclosures,” explained Duboff during the briefing. “It won’t force tracks into a false binary where a song either has to be categorically AI or not AI at all.”
The list of partners for the DDEX initiative published on Spotify’s blog post today doesn’t appear to include the names of the three majors, but MBW understands that Spotify is in talks with them about it, and that they are broadly supportive of Spotify’s new policies.
A UMG spokesperson told MBW in a statement that the company “welcome[s] Spotify’s new AI protections as important steps forward consistent with our longstanding Artist Centric principles”.
They added: “We believe AI presents enormous opportunities for both artists and fans, which is why platforms, distributors and aggregators must adopt measures to protect the health of the music ecosystem in order for these opportunities to flourish.
“These measures include content filtering; checks for infringement across streaming and social platforms; penalty systems for repeat infringers; chain-of-custody certification and name-and-likeness verification. The adoption of these measures would enable artists to reach more fans, have more economic and creative opportunities, and dramatically diminish the sea of noise and irrelevant content that threatens to drown out artists’ voices.”
“We welcome Spotify’s new AI protections as important steps forward consistent with our longstanding Artist Centric principles.”
A Warner Music Group spokesperson also told us that “WMG has been working with our distribution partners to set the right environment and ecosystem for AI, where the value of artistic creativity is protected.
“We appreciate and support Spotify on taking these steps to do just that and look forward to working with them on further safeguarding the rights of artists, songwriters and copyright owners.”
“We appreciate and support Spotify on taking these steps to do just that and look forward to working with them on further safeguarding the rights of artists, songwriters and copyright owners.”
Warner Music Group
Mike Caren, music producer and CEO of Artist Partner Group, endorsed the measures: “It’s crucial for artists to know that their partners are contributing to the protection of their identity and repertoire. Transparency in the use of AI is key to building trust with fans. These developments are significant steps forward for Spotify.”
As did songwriter Justin Tranter: “Songs and songwriters are at the core of the entire music business,” Tranter said.
“If we aren’t protected, we can’t do our jobs and the whole business suffers. There is still a lot of work to be done; but, I am so grateful for these efforts to support and protect us. Thank you.”
The economics driving spam
Spotify’s total music payouts have grown from $1 billion in 2014 to $10 billion in 2024, creating significant incentives for bad actors to flood platforms with low-quality content.
“Big payouts entice bad actors,” the company acknowledged. “Left unchecked, these behaviors can dilute the royalty pool and impact attention for artists playing by the rules.”
The problem extends beyond Spotify. Although fully AI-generated music currently accounts for only around 0.5% of all streams on Deezer, the platform believes the primary purpose of uploading these tracks is fraudulent activity rather than genuine creative expression.
According to Spotify’s analysis, tracks that appear to be primarily prompt-generated currently represent what Duboff called a “de minimis level of engagement” on the platform. “When music doesn’t take much effort to create, it tends to be low quality, doesn’t tend to find an audience,” he noted.
Artist autonomy and transparency
Charlie Hellman, VP Global Head of Music Product, positioned these changes within the broader context of technological disruption in music history.
“Every time these new technologies [emerged], there were artists who embraced it and thought it was great, and other artists who didn’t,” he said. “But the common thread in each of those moments was that it was the artists that got to decide.”
The company emphasized it will not penalize artists for legitimate use of AI tools. “We’re not here to punish artists for using AI authentically and responsibly,” Hellman stated.
When questioned about the Velvet Sundowner case – where an AI-generated band gained traction on the platform earlier this year – Duboff suggested transparent disclosure would have changed the narrative. “If these AI credits had been available before the summer, I think the news cycle, the fan interest would have been really different,” he said.
Denying playlist manipulation
The briefing addressed rumors about Spotify allegedly adding AI-generated tracks to editorial playlists to reduce royalty payments.
“Those rumors are categorically and absolutely false,” Duboff stated. “Spotify doesn’t generate any music. We don’t own any music. All the music on Spotify, 100% of it, is created, owned, uploaded by licensed third parties.”
Implementation timeline
The new impersonation policy becomes effective immediately. The spam filter has begun its gradual rollout, which Spotify plans to implement carefully over coming weeks. The DDEX AI credits system, while announced today, will require additional time for formal certification and supply chain updates.
Music Business Worldwide
