Low-quality, mass-produced AI songs have been flooding music streaming platforms like Spotify for a few years now. It’s annoying, but relatively easy for fans to avoid. However, this poses real problems for artists. There are so many slops coming in that some are falsely attributed to real musicians on these platforms.
It disrupts brand identity and audience retention, but Spotify is testing a new tool to help real artists exert more control over their profiles. The platform Protection of the artist profile The feature allows musicians to view releases before they go live and associate with their profile.
This should keep the AI from creeping in, as the artist themselves will have the final say when 100 new songs appear out of the blue that sound like them, but with all that pesky soul removed. It is currently in beta and if an artist declines a track, it will not be associated with their profile, contribute to statistics, or appear in user recommendations. This seems like a simple and potentially effective solution to a persistent problem.
“Music is arriving on the wrong artist pages on streaming services, and the rise of easy-to-produce AI tracks has made the problem worse,” Spotify wrote in a blog post. “We know how frustrating this can be for artists and fans alike.”
This comes just a week after Sony requested the removal of over 135,000 AI-generated songs from Spotify after discovering that the tracks were impersonating real artists. This even happens to bands who have completely removed themselves from Spotify. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard left the platform last yearto protest CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in a weapons manufacturing company, but a deepfake artist quickly filled the void.
Some of this is not malicious. It’s a number game for the “creators” of these pieces. Statistics vary, but it is estimated that around 50,000 AI-generated songs be uploaded to Spotify every day. The platform removed 75 million of these pieces last year. With so many downloads, it’s easy for tracks to accidentally end up on the wrong artist profile. Bad actors who seek to attach their slop to a known quantity make the problem worse.
Anyway, it’s good that Spotify is doing something about that. We don’t know when the tool will exit the beta phase and become available to all artists on the platform. That day can’t come soon enough.
This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/spotify-is-testing-a-tool-to-help-real-artists-deal-with-ai-slop-on-their-profiles-161013653.html?src=rss
