Spotify will stop recommending AI artists and label them as artificial personas

Spotify will begin removing music by artists that do not represent real humans from its recommendations and will tag them in the app as “AI Persona”. The change takes effect in mid-September, meaning a dedicated label will appear on the artist profile if the artist is not a real person. Starting today, artists can self-declare they are artificial, but Spotify will not rely solely on self-identification. The platform will use AI tools and human review to decide whether the profile—including name and image—appears to be a fake realistic identity. If classified as an AI artist, the profile will receive the label “Likely AI Persona”.

Spotify will not examine all profiles simultaneously. It will start with artists that meet a defined play-count threshold, prioritizing the profiles most listened to by users. If Spotify decides to attach an artificial-identity label to an artist, it will notify the artist and allow an appeal. The company also plans to add a feature that lets listeners report artists that appear to be AI-generated identities.

Spotify’s default setting will be to exclude AI personas from personalized recommendations and editorial editor picks. The company says listeners have explicitly requested not to see a profile that looks human and then discover it is AI. Spotify is tuning its algorithms to emphasize authentic artists and, according to available signals, strives to avoid spam, slop (low-quality content) or low-effort material in its recommendations.

The new tagging applies only to the artist’s identity, not to how the music itself was created. Spotify currently has no system to detect AI-generated music, unlike the streaming platform Deezer. However, Spotify does allow artists to disclose AI use and has launched a “Verified by Spotify” label indicating a real human. The move comes amid a flood of AI music on streaming services. Deezer recently disclosed that AI-generated tracks now constitute half of its daily song uploads.