Spotify Adds AI Tags in Song Credits
Spotify is now showing listeners when AI was used to make a song. But only when the artist says so.
The feature is called AI Credits, in beta, rolling out first through DistroKid. It sits inside Song Credits on mobile and flags AI involvement in specific parts of a track: vocals, lyrics, production. However, no credit doesn't mean AI wasn't used.
Apple Music launched something similar in March, called Transparency Tags, also self-reported. Deezer went a different direction and built detection, a tool that automatically flags fully AI-generated tracks, catching around 75,000 per day. Think about that number relative to what a voluntary disclosure system would cover.
Spotify has made real moves. More than 75 million spammy tracks removed in the past year, partnerships with Sony, Universal, Warner, Merlin, and Believe on what the company calls responsible AI products, and work through DDEX toward an industry-wide disclosure standard.
But infrastructure built on self-reporting depends on people using it honestly. A tag that only shows up when someone volunteers it tells you about the artists who wanted you to know. Detection is the only approach that doesn't start from that assumption. I think it has to be part of this, and I'm not sure the pace things are moving at reflects how fast the problem is growing.
