The Record Industry Wants Spotify and Apple Music to Label AI Tracks

The music industry is finally trying to draw a line in the sand against the unchecked flood of machine-made music. According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, a coalition of major music organizations—including the RIAA, IFPI, Recording Academy, and SAG-AFTRA—is pushing global streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music to implement a standardized labeling system for artificial intelligence. The proposal, as detailed by Music Business Worldwide, outlines two distinct tags. A black tile with uppercase "AI" would mark "AI-generated" tracks built entirely by machines or featuring machine-produced lead vocals. A white tile with lowercase "ai" would denote "AI-assisted" tracks, where human creators simply utilized AI tools in the process. This is a necessary business intervention. A Deezer and Ipsos study of 9,000 listeners revealed that while 97% of people cannot distinguish AI songs from human ones, 80% want fully AI tracks clearly labeled. We are rapidly losing our grip on what is real, and listeners deserve basic consumer transparency. Currently, the system relies on artists and labels to voluntarily flag AI usage. While Deezer has been active in detecting AI music at the platform level since 2025—noting that fully AI-generated tracks made up over 44% of their new deliveries—major players like Spotify have yet to commit to these specific tags. Streaming lobby group DiMA, which represents Apple and Spotify, stated they are monitoring the move but stopped short of committing to the proposed system. Labels and distributors must now pressure these platforms to adopt the standard and protect human intellectual property.