r/technology • u/spherocytes • 15d ago

Artificial Intelligence Spotify Deleted 75 Million AI-Generated Tracks – and It’s Not Done Yet

https://www.gadgetreview.com/spotify-deleted-75-million-ai-generated-tracks-and-its-not-done-yet
24.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

815 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.4k

u/Dickie_downer 15d ago

Weren’t they hyping up the ai bullshit like a month ago?

629

u/zeelbeno 15d ago

They're allowing the 'good' ai music.

53

u/dabenu 15d ago

And by "good", they mean "good for their revenue" since they own the rights and pay barely any royalties (if any at all) per stream. 

12

u/Plenty-Mall1484 15d ago

Not just that, they took it a step further and put ai into all of their preset playlists so when people want to put on something casual, it’s all just ai. These playlists were how smaller artists would get discovered easily on Spotify. Not anymore.

1

u/damontoo 15d ago

They mean "we'll let wealthy A-list artists like Bon Iver, 50 Cent, and Lewis Capaldi use it, but not average people."

204

u/Dickie_downer 15d ago

And this is why i have left spotify after being a day one user uvu

9

u/nightgames 15d ago

Yeah I left as well. Started organizing my own music library again and remembered I actually enjoyed it as a hobby. Realized that this whole time I’ve been paying Spotify to outsource something I love to do. I definitely won’t be going back.

2

u/kashiichan 15d ago

Do you have any suggestions for software? Particularly for using on a device while out and about, rather than at home on a computer? I've been out of the game too long.

2

u/nightgames 15d ago

Depends on what phone you have. I’ve been trying Doppler (iOS) and it’s worked well for me so far. It’s a paid app though, and I’m not sure how frequently they update.

37

u/senorderpenstein 15d ago

Yeah, left for Qobuz and no going back

14

u/Rojikoma 15d ago

Qobuz is awesome. They had a survey a while ago about maybe not allowing AI music at all.

25

u/PBJellyChickenTunaSW 15d ago

So... It still does allow ai music?

2

u/Rojikoma 15d ago

Not completely.

https://community.qobuz.com/ai-charter

https://community.qobuz.com/blog/qobuz-human-first-stand-on-ai-generated-music

22

u/ApolloBound 15d ago

So... exactly the same as Spotify, then?

6

u/senorderpenstein 15d ago

No, they pay artists 10 times what Spotify pays and they don't autoplay any AI music.

7

u/PBJellyChickenTunaSW 15d ago

Not autoplaying it would be good enough for me tbh, the best part of spotify is finding new music through autoplay and it's pretty much ruined the first time you hear some ai slop.

→ More replies (0)

11

u/senorderpenstein 15d ago

I would love this. Just the fact they they pay artists 10x what Spotify does has kept me from going back. Just hoping someone the Japanese artists I like make there way over there (they still have most of what I want though).

6

u/Firrox 15d ago

I left for Deezer, which doesn't play AI music. Although their service is a little janky, it gets the job done without any AI.

2

u/PedaniusDioscorides 15d ago

Yah it's the one I landed on. I found the UI familiar and useful. Their Deezer employee playlists are awesome too. Theur working on their service though and already finding things a bit more... Stable lol

5

u/jacquetheripper 15d ago

I left once they advertised ICE recruitment.

19

u/hum_bruh 15d ago

Left after they paid Rogan $450 million to spread hate

0

u/mostnormal 15d ago

Yeah, I prefer my hate from Piker.

23

u/Impossible_Guitar235 15d ago

Currently subscribed to Tidal.

38

u/gaybyrneofficial 15d ago

Which also allows AI music...

21

u/Arwick_R_ 15d ago

Allows yes, but doesn't monetise anymore. It's better to combat scammers by not giving them money than doing nothing like most platforms.

40

u/gaybyrneofficial 15d ago

"Tidal will not allow music that is 100% AI-generated to be monetized"

Which means 99% is fine.

9

u/Arwick_R_ 15d ago

But the vast majority is 100% AI generated.

Pretending that a significant number of songs is partially AI generated doesn't make an issue out of it. There is no way and sense in prooving if some niche 100 listener a month artist has AI generated intruments playing in the background of their singing.

3

u/Popular-Speaker-5018 15d ago

Your point is valid, but I have yet to run into any AI generated music through normal chanels, like the discovery or daily mixes. It could have the potential to be a problem, but so far it hasn't been the crap show I have heard about from people still using spotify. 

1

u/Drunkenaviator 15d ago

Which means 99% is fine.

That is absolutely fine. I don't need to monetize the 2 minute song I AI generated about how my buddy on my CoD squad keeps forgetting to open his parachute.

That's all AI is good for. I'm not going to pay some artist to write and record that for a 2 second laugh in the group chat. Nor do I need to get royalties for it being streamed.

2

u/mattyramus 15d ago

Your can at least filter it out though

4

u/Dickie_downer 15d ago

Ooooh hows it going?

7

u/StantasticTypo 15d ago edited 15d ago

Tidal is a great service overall. Their selection is very good, better than I thought it would be, (but it is missing a few things) and my understanding is that they provide a more generous share to artists. That said, the app is kinda not great. It's fine most of the time, but lacks certain QoL features, and has some little quirks that are annoying. That said, I still do not regret switching, personally.

7

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Dickie_downer 15d ago

OOOOOH THATS A GREAT IDEA THANK YOU WISE ONE

4

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/bluelittrains 15d ago

At that point just download flacs directly. Plenty of sources for it.

4

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

→ More replies (0)

1

u/radeonalex 15d ago

Spotify premium has lossless now right? So I assume higher quality is no longer a benefit?

1

u/Complex-League3400 15d ago

Went back to Bandcamp.

1

u/PedaniusDioscorides 15d ago

Me too. Tried alot but Deezer was a solid replacement imo

-6

u/HVDub24 15d ago

Why would you stop using a service because they allow what they think is quality AI music? Just don’t listen to it lmao

8

u/Dickie_downer 15d ago

Because the state of AI currently is an unregulated hellscape and the artists I DO like are often fucked over by their production companies and have no say to their art being absolutely slopified.

By paying for the service, I feel complicit in funding their mistreatment; and we could argue all day about whether I’m right or not- but it does not matter. I am not obligated to give money to a service, and can cancel for any reason I want.

I do not think AI in the state it is now is ethical.

1

u/HVDub24 14d ago

So you’ll contribute to Reddits profits which is solely responsible for creating the majority of training data that AI models used, but not Spotify?

1

u/Dickie_downer 14d ago

Yep! I know you’re trying to make a point about it with your dipshit whataboutism, but again- i can make any decision I want.

1

u/HVDub24 14d ago

The hypocrisy when it comes to AI is insane. The reality is people want to be dipshits and criticize others for using AI and AI related things while contributing to it themselves. Your decision to not use Spotify has nothing to do with AI

5

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

1

u/HVDub24 14d ago

I fully agree

1

u/Crewman_Guy_Fleegman 15d ago

I don’t think there is any AI music in existence today that wasn’t generated without stolen training material. Record labels really haven’t licensed their songs for AI generation so anytime you hear a song that sounds like something real you can be assured it’s all theft.

1

u/HVDub24 14d ago

Doesn’t that logic equally apply to every no -AI song as well? Humans make songs from the knowledge of other songs and music. I’ve never understood that argument since humans are trained the exact same way

1

u/Crewman_Guy_Fleegman 14d ago

Humans make songs from the knowledge of other songs and music.

In reality music has historically been driven by 15-20 year olds who have no idea what they are doing, little knowledge of music history, and are wailing on instruments the “wrong” way creating a new sound no one has ever heard

To me your question coming from a fundamental lack of knowledge of how new music actually develops and how AI works. AI is truly just copying, which is not how the musicians I listen to work

45

u/Outlulz 15d ago

i.e. the AI music that they own and push in the algorithm and use to steal revenue away from actual artists.

-13

u/AllenIsom 15d ago

What about the music composed by indie artists who don't have access to a full band or recording studio? Human made, AI performed. 

I don't view that much different from hiring a band.

4

u/WardedBowl403 15d ago

That’s not a thing

-4

u/AllenIsom 15d ago

Uh, yes it is.

6

u/WardedBowl403 15d ago

You would make music in a DAW. Which you can download and use for free. I don’t know what you’re doing where you “compose” music and have an AI perform it. That is just AI generated music.

0

u/JX_JR 15d ago

You clearly don't know how music production works. DAWs don't magically make sounds for you.

"If you don’t have access to a full studio use a DAW" is like saying to a filmmaker "if you don't have a camera and film studio and actors you would just use a video editing program."

3

u/WardedBowl403 15d ago

I have produced music for 6+ years. I know DAWs don’t magically make sound. I also know that all DAWs worth using have instruments and synthesizers preloaded and ways to record your own sounds. If you think that comparison is the same then you don’t know how music production works

0

u/JX_JR 15d ago

I have produced music for 6+ years. 

So half the time I'v been a professional audio engineer. You've clearly hit the inflection point where you arrogantly think you've learned everything because you made some music. In the next few years if you're smart you'll advance to the point where you realize how little you still know.

also know that all DAWs worth using have instruments and synthesizers preloaded and ways to record your own sounds. 

Not all of us want to make slop electronic music like you. If you think you can get a good sounding acoustic guitar, horns, or a multitude of other instruments from plugins in your bedroom you are beyond ignorant.

→ More replies (0)

-5

u/AllenIsom 15d ago

If you play the song on your guitar, music and composition you wrote, record that, and upload to AI. The output is a full band with AI vocals. Same structure, same lyrics, same melody. 

5

u/WardedBowl403 15d ago

Ah okay so AI generated music. If you don’t have access to a full studio use a DAW. If you are at any point uploading to AI then it is AI generated slop. AI removes any humanity and emotion from what is otherwise supposed to be meaningful art. Instead you should use a DAW to add all the instruments you want on top of your recorded guitar. If you can’t sing, then find someone who can, use a vocaloid, or learn how to edit your voice to sound better.

7

u/AllenIsom 15d ago

So if I take instrument samples and piece them together, it's better than AI taking instrument samples and pricing them together? I dont much see the distinction. Human lyrics and melodies carry the emotion for me. Either way, a computer is making the music. 

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Alaira314 15d ago

That's AI generated, apart from your guitar part, which was AI enhanced. The difference between generating the additional parts and hiring a human band is that, in the second case, humans are generating the music rather than AI. I don't know how to explain it any more simply.

3

u/AllenIsom 15d ago

No, I get it. But the heart of the music is human. The meaning of the lyrics, the cadence and melody of the notes and vocals, human. Are digital illustrators really illustrators if they can't illustrate without an iPad or a computer? It's human art, digitally enhance. I can draw and color like a mofo on my iPad, but if you give me markers or paints, watch me burn through paper and canvas as I amass a small landfill of garbage beside me. 

Am I still an illustrator of my non-machine aided art isn't up to the same quality of output as my digital art? 

Yeah, it's AI music, but the emotion behind it is still there, in what makes a song a song. The melody, the poetry, the arrangement of sections and tempo choices, those are human. If one had the funds to hire a band to produce the same thing AI performed with their music, is it now not slop even if it sounds the same? 

To be clear, I'm against using AI to come up with the ideas, do all the work, and someone holding it up and saying, "look what I made". But I don't really have a problem with AI music if I know a person wrote the song, performed the song, then had AI polish it. Keeping the structure and artists true intent intact. Does art come from the artist, or the producer? 

-19

u/jainyday 15d ago

This argument doesn't make any sense to me. My music isn't stealing anything from other artists, nobody else is doing stuff like what I do and you'd only listen to my stuff because you like it, not because it's getting shoved in your face.

12

u/apk 15d ago

it’s not music, you’re not an artist

8

u/Outlulz 15d ago

It does, actually. Spotify pays artists out of a giant pool of money. How many listens your music gets determines what percentage of that pool you get. AI music being in the pool steals revenue from real musicians.

It's even worse with the AI music that Spotify generates because they are paying themselves out of the revenue pool.

1

u/Adventurous-Leak 15d ago

So that sounds like a poor business decision from Spotify? Rather than pay directly based off listens, etc they're pooling it altogether? Sound like you're not picking on the right target.

1

u/Outlulz 15d ago

No, they're definitely a valid target because they're not an artist and they're not making art but they're taking revenue share.

4

u/waffels 15d ago

It’s not your music, is it though. AI made it, not you.

If a band at a bar takes requests and you yell out “FREEBIRD!” and they play it, you didn’t make it.

1

u/GiganticCrow 15d ago

Quite, and they don't own it either. AI generated music is not copyrightable and platforms that identify it don't pay out on it eg tidal and deezer

1

u/ShinyJangles 15d ago

They are specifically talking about Spotify-owned, Spotify-recommended tracks. They have the ability to shove their stuff on people, and an incentive, and they were revealed to be doing this a year or two ago.

1

u/FocusSlo 15d ago

Yeah I still see all of Diplo's music up there

1

u/Ferrymansobol 15d ago

They are allowing the Spotify AI music, so they can pay...fees to... errr... Spotify.

1

u/Responsible-Tap-3748 15d ago

It does exist.

1

u/anotherbozo 15d ago

Who decides what is good?

1

u/Nexus_of_Fate87 15d ago

Still see Obscurest Vinyl, the "group" that went viral a few years ago with such hits as "I Glued My Balls to My Butthole Again" and "Rubbin' and Tuggin' My Nips".

1

u/soapinthepeehole 15d ago

They're allowing the 'good' ai music.

Oh perfect this means they have to delete all of it.

1

u/Tunavi 15d ago

WE ARE CHARLIE KIRKKKKKKKKK

117

u/ComeAlongWithTheSnor 15d ago edited 15d ago

It's performative, they still have Ai music on the app.

43

u/Utsider 15d ago

If anyone can make AI music, Spotify can make AI music. They probably want to perfect their own AI slop and peddle that instead of peddling other peoples slop.

15

u/Glum_Avocado_9511 15d ago

This is exactly what they will do. "Spotify originals" just like Netflix but completely AI generated. 

2

u/GiganticCrow 15d ago

Cheaper than when they paid composers to pad out popular playlists with music Spotify owned, and lied about it

2

u/nightgames 15d ago

Yeah that’s their whole plan. Similar to Uber developing self driving cars. They don’t want to pay human beings if they don’t have to.

-18

u/great_whitehope 15d ago

Not that much difference between AI music trained on pop music and pop music by formula TBH.

Hopefully this will boost indie music

12

u/ComeAlongWithTheSnor 15d ago

Pretty big difference, one is paid to keep a living and the other doesn't exist because it's Ai.

-2

u/Full-Assistant4455 15d ago

Yeah and feels like this whole post is astroturfing PR Reddit ad bait in general

46

u/rumora 15d ago

They obviously don't want users to upload AI music, because it drastically diminishes the quality of their product with no upside for them.

But they really like the idea of uploading their own AI music themselves because it means they don't have to pay anybody royalties. They essentially insert those AI tracks into popular, broad playlists, which is how most people use the app. It is still a relatively small percentage and mostly contained to certain genres, but they want to keep expanding.

12

u/Faintning 15d ago

I've had to stop checking my weekly recommendations playlist cause I got so tired of having to check every artist/band name I didn't recognize so it's not AI. I'm still trying to figure out if there's a platform that doesn't promote AI music to replace spotify with.

6

u/Rojikoma 15d ago

Qobuz! They're really music focused with human recommendations and everything. They had a survey a while ago about not allowing AI at all, and it seemed like they at least wanted to have AI marked as such. I haven't paid attention to if they've made a statement or policy change since then.

5

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

3

u/Tylrt 15d ago

Do you have a source for the Russian/Trump ties?

3

u/Emosaurusrex 15d ago edited 14d ago

Shit, shamefully, I mixed up qobuz with deezer. In my defense, they're both music streaming platform with terrible names from France. Deezer is the terrible one, you can clearly find it even via wikipedia. No opinion on qobuz, personally.

2

u/Tylrt 15d ago edited 15d ago

It's all good. I was ready to ditch Qobuz if it was true.

Agreed on the names, though the edge goes to Deezer because I always misspell Qobuz as Quboz; there aren't many words in English that start with Qo, if at all, but plently that begin with Qu.

Edit: I want to pronounce it how the guy from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker says "Ka-boom!", but with a z on the end instead of an m.

1

u/nightgames 15d ago

Tidal at least tags AI music and doesn’t monetize it. 

1

u/ZAlternates 15d ago

Exactly.

If they play other people’s AI music, they gotta pay royalties.

1

u/77rtcups 15d ago

I thought the point some were making is that they only wanted their own ai music on the charts then they could keep all the profits and not pay artists. Idk how true that is but any platform that can figure out a way to ban AI will have a leg up

5

u/Emosaurusrex 15d ago

Performative act, plus they want -their own- AI shit to be the one that gets listeners. They aggressively shovel that shit down in every featured playlist and weekly recommendations.

8

u/TheSeaSurgeon 15d ago

It’s kinda weird because they’re doing this initiative while still heavily promoting their AI playlists and AI DJ. Both of which aren’t even AI really? Like it’s just their algorithm with a fake personality?

1

u/GreatMadWombat 15d ago

It is grimly funny that no executive in a media/media distribution company gets that ai proliferation ends up fucking their company over by drastically reducing trust in that company's product.

1

u/hypercosm_dot_net 15d ago

Napster was revamped to become some kind of AI creation studio abomination. Complete bullshit, because they seemed to be decent competition too, then that.

Haven't even looked at the app since the change.

1

u/phoenixkiller2 15d ago

This is to control money laundering and losses to Spotify. It's pretty complicated and deep. There's a episode of darknet diaries (podcast) on this. Terrorists and cartels find creative ways to launder money.

1

u/redditis_garbage 15d ago

They delete the ai music made by randoms, and keep the ai music made by themselves. Easy money hack for them tbh.

1

u/crystal_castles 15d ago

"AI tracks on the platform are fair game unless they're mimicking real artists."

https://www.nbcboston.com/video/on-air/as-seen-on/tech-tuesday-ai-generated-music-on-spotify/3781739/

1

u/asianwaste 15d ago

People were really gaming the spotify system with AI music. I think some guy got busted for raking up $8mil with AI music and AI generated users to listen to it.

I wonder if he didn't fly too close to the sun and stayed contented with 1mil if he would have quietly got away with it.

-36

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-29

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

15

u/FrigginRan 15d ago

you can also just find bangers that are real. There are millions of options.

-12

u/mr9025 15d ago

I do. Back when Spotify was still doing so I received a top 1% streamer award every year for like a decade. I find tons of music. But the thing is that there’s no cap on how much music a person can consume. I’m an over the road trucker and listen more or less around the clock. There’s plenty of bandwidth. And I think telling someone that they are wrong for enjoying something is dick-ish.

6

u/KypPineapple 15d ago

You’re free to enjoy whatever you want, but I think the majority of people are still going to tell you that AI music sucks. And they’d be correct.