Spotify Unleashes the Banhammer: Cracking Down on AI-Generated Music Fraud

Spotify is drawing a line in the sand, announcing a massive crackdown on AI-generated music and the fraudulent activity associated with it. This aggressive stance comes after the streaming giant removed tens of thousands of AI-made tracks that were being used to generate fake streams, diverting royalties from human artists.

The move highlights a growing headache for music platforms: the proliferation of AI-generated content designed to game the system.

Companies like Universal Music Group had already flagged a significant issue with 'bot' streams, estimating that between 10% and 15% of all streams are fraudulent. This isn't just about AI; it encompasses a broader problem of bad actors attempting to siphon money through artificial means. However, AI's ability to quickly generate vast quantities of music at low cost makes it a particularly potent tool for this kind of manipulation.

Spotify's latest action saw over 30,000 tracks removed in collaboration with the AI music distribution service, Boomy.

While Boomy itself isn't accused of malicious intent, its platform, which allows users to create AI-generated songs and then distribute them to services like Spotify, became a conduit for fraudulent activities. The core issue was 'artificial streaming,' where bots listen to tracks to inflate stream counts, thereby tricking royalty systems into paying out.

This isn't just about vanity metrics; it's about real money being taken from legitimate artists.

This isn't an isolated incident. Previously, Spotify also removed tracks generated by another AI music platform, Endel, due to similar concerns about artificial streams. The company has been increasingly vigilant, implementing new guidelines and technologies to detect and deter such fraudulent behavior.

Their terms of service already prohibit .