Photo Credit: Mariia Berezovsky
Apple Music reveals more information on its upcoming AI labeling system, due to launch “later this year.”
Apple Music unveiled more information about its upcoming move to label tracks created using artificial intelligence in an email sent out to the music industry on Thursday. The streaming service said that AI music labels will arrive “later this year,” though a specific launch date hasn’t been disclosed.
The news arrives months after Apple Music announced its “AI Transparency Tags,” which are available for record labels and music distributors to disclose when content uploaded was “materially generated using AI.”
Primarily, Apple Music is relying on content providers such as record labels and distributors to apply the necessary transparency tags. The company emphasized that content providers are key partners in this process because “they are best positioned to know how their content was created.”
“Content providers will be required to include AI Transparency Tags in any instance where AI was used to create a material portion of the content,” Apple Music explained, including “tracks that are AI-platform-generated,” such as those from platforms like Suno and Udio. “We define AI-platform-generated content as anything that is primarily derived from a generative AI service.”
However, the company did not include details as to how these requirements will be enforced.
The whole thing follows the RIAA and IFPI-led effort calling for streaming services to add AI labels to their platforms similar to the way explicit tracks are disclosed. To that end, Spotify announced a similar AI-labeling initiative on its platform, noting that such artists would be excluded from editorial or algorithmic recommendations. Spotify does not label the songs themselves, but the artist profiles attached to them. The platform also launched an AI song labeling feature in April, but disclosure on individual songs is voluntary.
For DSPs as a whole, efforts to disclose AI-created music arrive amid increasing concerns of fraud and streaming manipulation that comes with the deluge of AI-generated content being uploaded to these platforms. Spotify and Deezer have both revealed a massive increase in the amount of AI “slop” tracks uploaded to their platforms over the past year, while Apple Music has doubled its penalty fees on bad actors caught engaging in streaming fraud.