Topline
Apple Music will ask record labels and distributors to flag when songs and artwork are created using AI to increase “transparency,” the latest effort by a major streaming service to address the flood of AI-generated songs as platforms like Suno and Udio grow.
Key Facts
Apple Music told labels and distributors music uploaded to its platform must contain a “transparency tag,” which it said should be applied when a “material portion” of content is created using AI tools, Billboard reported Thursday.
The transparency tag must be used in four categories: album artwork, songs, music composition (including lyrics), and music videos.
Apple’s announcement said the transparency tags are the “first step in giving the music industry the data and tools needed to develop thoughtful policies around AI,” Music Business Worldwide reported.
Apple will leave it up to labels and distributors to determine what qualifies as AI-generated music or visuals, according to Music Business Worldwide.
How Have Other Streaming Platforms Addressed Ai Music?
Spotify tightened its AI music policies in September, announcing it would remove tracks that impersonate another artist’s voice without their consent, implement a new filter to remove spam and include AI usage disclosures in song credits. Spotify also said in September it had removed 75 million spam tracks over the past year. Deezer, a French music streaming service, rolled out an AI detection tool in early 2025, which detects and flags tracks made using generative AI. Deezer said it created the tool to “prevent fraudulent actors from stealing royalties from real artists,” and in January, it announced it would sell its AI-detection technology to “support transparency in music streaming and reduce the incentive for AI-music fraud.”
How Popular Is Ai-Generated Music?
AI-generated music has exploded in recent months, with companies like Suno—which said in November it is valued at $2.45 billion—and Udio offering tools for users to generate songs. In November, Billboard reported Suno is used to generate 7 million songs daily and creates the equivalent of Spotify’s entire catalog of music every two weeks. Suno co-founder Mikey Shulman said in a LinkedIn post last week the platform reached 2 million paid subscribers and more than 100 million people have used Suno, which also offers a free version, to create music. Deezer said in January more than 60,000 AI-generated tracks are uploaded to its platform daily, six times as many as one year prior when it implemented its AI detection tool. AI-generated content now accounts for 39% of Deezer uploads, and it tagged 13.4 million tracks as AI-generated between January 2025 and January 2026.
Tangent
Artists and some labels have pushed back on AI-generated music. Several artists rights groups launched a “Say No to Suno” campaign last week, accusing the company in an open letter of “scraping the world’s cultural output without permission” and claiming it dilutes the royalties artists receive from streaming services because platforms are becoming flooded with “AI slop.” Suno and Udio have also faced lawsuits from all major record labels, accusing the companies of training their AI technology on copyrighted material, though a few of these suits have since been settled—including Warner Music Group’s suit against Suno, which was settled in November as the entities etched a partnership to develop AI models.
AI Music Platform Suno Reaches 2 Million Subscribers—As Industry Backlash Grows (Forbes)
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