Spotify removes tens of thousands of songs generated by artificial intelligence

The Financial Times reported that Spotify recently removed tens of thousands of songs provided by the artificial intelligence-powered music generation startup Boomy, citing suspicious listening behaviors that seemingly garnered undue profits.

Launched in 2021, Boomy’s service allows users to select their desired musical style and rhythm, generating song content based on text descriptions and enabling users to upload their creations to Spotify. Currently, the number of songs generated through Boomy exceeds 14.5 million, accounting for approximately 13.95% of the world’s total music.

Spotify’s mass removal of Boomy-generated songs was not due to the artificial intelligence technology behind their creation but rather the suspicion of orchestrated streaming by Universal Music. This implies that these songs were potentially played extensively by bots, fraudulently amassing profits.

Spotify’s revenue-sharing mechanism includes calculating proportional payouts based on song plays. Therefore, if individuals exploit Boomy’s service to generate vast quantities of songs and inflate their play count through bots, it inevitably causes issues for Spotify. To mitigate the impact of such irregularities, Spotify may reduce the effective play count or withhold royalties.

This incident suggests that Spotify does not object to AI-generated songs from services like Boomy, as long as they do not infringe on copyright. The platform seemingly permits these songs, allowing users to earn revenue through streaming traffic. Consequently, it is no surprise that many opportunists are seeking to profit from this arrangement.