Spotify Will Not Be Introducing A Complete Ban Of Music Produced By AI
The bosses at Spotify have no plans for a complete ban of content created by artificial intelligence on their platform according to a recent interview with the BBC.
Daniel Ek, the chief executive of Spotify said in an interview with the BBC that there are valid uses of AI within the production and creation of music, but that it should not be used to impersonate artists without their consent. He went on to say that the debate over the use of AI in music is likely to continue for many years as it is a complex issue.
Ek went on to say that he sees three “buckets” of AI usage in the music industry:
- The use of tools such as auto-tune to improve music,
- The use of tools that mimic already existing artists,
- The use of AI to create music that is influenced by existing artists but is not a direct impersonation.
He believes that the usage of AI to improve music is acceptable, but that using it to impersonate artists without their consent is not. This has previously been an issue on the platform, with a track using AI to clone the voices of Drake and The Weeknd being removed from Spotify earlier this year. However, the use of AI to create music influenced by current artists is a much more controversial situation.
AI is currently used by the music streaming platform to personalise users' experiences with Spotify to recommend music, playlists and artists to users to increase the chances of long term subscriptions.
However, as the use of artificial intelligence has become more popular through platforms such as ChatGPT developed by OpenAI, it has also raised concerns as to whether artists and composers will be replaced by music-generating apps in the future. An example of this is MusicGen, which was released by Meta in early August this year.
