Spotify Exec Breaks Down AI Music, Fraud & Royalties

nahhh f distrokid they banned me go to landr guys

the only fraud is that spotify pays artists 0,003 per stream

A lot of people seem to think no effort goes into ALL AI generated music.

They don't think about people like me that actually write lyrics but don't have the funds to hire a singer or a studio to create them in.



I make deep house tracks using AI for the music and vocals (I can sing but haven't had the bravery to put my voice with the music yet), but the lyrics are extremely personal and influenced by my actual life experiences and feelings.

They are songs with real meaning (and they also take hours to make with changes to the prompt, edits to make the vocals work better, messing with the stems to get it to sound how I want it to...not to mention days getting the lyrics just right).



Yet according to many people, some famous 'artist' that spends an hour or so in a studio creating a dance track that has nothing meaningful in it, and that was created purely to make money, is more of a 'real' artist than I am.
Yeah, whatever.

1. Fully AI generated music should be demonetized. Period. There is no substantial human input in prompting. It is exactly the same as hiring a songwriter and telling them what you want them to write, and then asking them to make some changes. The songwriter does the work, you just placed a request.
2. Spotify, and all streaming platforms, should have an AI Music toggle that you can turn off if you do not wish to listen to AI music.
3. Fully AI generated music DOES NOT grant you copyright. It is in the public domain. For now, you can still monetize it, but you can't copyright it. This is important for cases such as sync licensing. Or if the track goes viral, anyone can freely copy, sample, remix, or re-upload your exact track or close derivatives without infringement claims. You also can't claim performance royalties via PROs since there is no human authorship involved. Also labels will not be interested in signing it since this material doesn't grant them any rights.
4. Partially AI generated music (e.g. you upload your lyrics and AI creates the melody), should have a percentage of human authorship assigned to it. If you upload your lyrics and AI creates the melody, that's 50% copyrightable/50% public domain. If you upload 2 verses + a chorus and AI finishes the lyrics and writes the melody, the system should calculcate human vs. AI input and assign copyright/public domain percentage accordingly.
5. Using AI as a tool (you upload your lyrics, hum the melody, or upload a demo of you playing and singing the song and use AI to generate an arrangement) should grant you 100% performance royalties, but the master rights (related to the recording itself) are still in the grey area. This needs to be addressed.

I wouldn't recommend Distrokid as a distributor from my experience

This is a BS video for the Spotify PR department.. This exec says AI songs on Spotify are very low. Prove it and stop lying. These AI shonks and grifters just produce spin for ignorant fools and losers. Spotify is 40% fake AI music. Everyone knows it. Folks, ignore fanboy channels like this.

This is another big clue that AI is not going away. I personally do not completely agree with that EVEN if I use AI for my music too.. I create my lyrics and run it through AI (Mostly, do some modifications too).
The IMPORTANT thing to sniff here is that Spotify, Apple, ect will protect the bigger guys, Sony, WMG, Universal, ect... NOT me as an AI small artist NOR you as an organic small artist. It hurts me a lot because I know how big company are against small creators like I was before using AI... I tried for 10 years to get involved in music with next to 0 success. TEN years of talent and energy wasted. Worse, Small AI creators like me will be censored obviously... My lyrics are full of jabs at big companies and the music industry... they hate it. Its sad fr.

My music is as real as anything, I write the lyrics, edits, spend dozens of hours creating quality videos, etc. if you think it’s as easy as “Claude write me a good song” go try it you’ll be taught a lesson

There is nothing wrong with A.I. Music. I wrote the Lyrics , I arranged the music, Temp and ECT. My Music turned out great and I don't use the A.I. format voice I use Mine.

Spotifys new CEOs are NOT songwriters, and are AI freaks. Wonder where this is going to end up. I’ll take $6 BILLION in THEIR POCKETS, and real human songwriters getting railed up their ass. What did I win?

Spotify CEO is a pathetic liar. Their new policy is implemented like this: they scan all new music for "AI finger-prints" and, at least if you're a smaller indie artist, they can just secretly shadow-ban your new tracks from the Discovery Pool and even from Release Radar (which is a contractual breach). Spotify Support has also evidently been instructed to obstruct and gaslight any indie artist who finds their career and audience starved to the death by this shadow-banning. They lie straight in your face, disrespect the known facts and go in endless circles without even trying to find a solution or give any explanation of your music being de facto banned from discovery. This is illegal in the EU. Spotify will pay dearly for breaking the EU's Digital Services Act by discriminating in secret against indie artists using AI responsibly and in line with the official Spotify rules. In reality, the company seems hellbent on protecting the major record labels and only the biggest artists, while sacrificing small and creative artists using new technologies in innovative ways. Spotify does not allow small artists to prove they are human or to prove human authorship of their work! I look forward to Spotify hopefully being fined 6% of its total turn-over by the European Commission once the evidence has made its rounds.

Here's what I don't understand about this and maybe somebody can help me.

I create AI music for a very particular research project, 13th century medieval lullabies. It's not exactly something that's going to have a huge following to begin with, but it does have a very particular group of interests. My distributor made it very clear to me that if I tried to publish more than one piece in 7 days, they would cancel me. That's fine, I actually think that is respectable because that fits in line with every single platform that I work with.

Focusing specifically on Spotify and their rules, supposedly also requiring 7 days between uploads of the same account, how the hell are people flooding the platform with 600 uploads a day? Why aren't they being banned for even uploading that much when that is against their own terms of service?

Are they using different accounts to bypass this?

Some elementary math: 11 billion payout in 2025 to 13 million artists. On average 850 per artist PER YEAR. Music is an absolute oversaturated market. The probability of NOT making a living from music is 99.4%. So the best bet of getting poor is to be a professional musician. Stop telling young people they will be the next superstar and ruining their lives. Learn a profession in a healthy market instead. Music as hobby is still great. J

Im on distrokid. They been cool. But the legacy fees are extortion

Another interesting interview, thanks!

Glad he pointed out the numerous occasions in the past where tech has played a pivotal role in music creation because a surprising amount of people seem to be forgetting about all of this at the moment.

I think that the opt in part of the deal between Warner and Suno the most pragmatic way forward at the moment when it comes to all this IP on voices stuff which just creates a new revenue streams for the majors and the artists (so they'll be happy).

But going after songwriters who have used AI to unknowingly produce a song that sounds similar to an artists songs' chord arrangement, or vocal melody has always seemed ridiculous to me.

Remember that Ed Sheeran demonstrated quite clearly in the Copyright Lawsuit case of 2023 that so many songs out there share the same chord arrangements, and there's obviously only so many vocal melody variations that you can come up with before songs start sounding similar to each other.

This is a very nuanced conversation.

Great interview! Only fault! This kind of cuts off abruptly (as though there was more to be said and no bridge of communication to end off the conversation properly, by thanking the guest etc.

Finally, a clear distinction between AI spam and AI artistry. The future isn't in 'one-click' generation, but in phonetic engineering and technical control. We don't need millions of random tracks; we need artists who know how to master these new tools to produce professional results. Great to hear Spotify's stance on protecting real creators.

It’s like he’s not taking any stance at all? What am I listening to? Did I miss something? The obvious thing that has to be done it’s simply label AI music for what it is especially when it’s 100% AI generated.

Soft corporate propaganda.... they only pay after 1k x 12 month and if your music is useless for free, you are not getting paid from the fake money pool!

Great interview