Spotify to Label AI Artist Profiles Starting September 2026
Spotify will start flagging AI-generated artist profiles next month and cutting them out of its recommendation system, the company said this week.
The new "AI Persona" badge is aimed at artist accounts whose public identity, meaning the name and imagery on the profile, is fully AI-generated rather than tied to a real person. According to Spotify's announcement, the badges will begin appearing in mid-September on artist profile banners, in the About section, in search results, and on track rows across playlists.
Artists can self-disclose that they run an AI Persona starting now through Spotify for Artists. For accounts that don't disclose, Spotify says it will review profiles itself, starting with artists who have already built up a sizable audience.
Once a profile is labeled, its music is excluded from Spotify's editorial and algorithmic recommendations by default. That means AI Persona tracks won't appear in personalized mixes, curated playlists, or algorithmic recommendations like Discover Weekly. The only way listeners will see that music recommended to them is by directly following the artist, which Spotify treats as an explicit signal of interest.
Spotify says the label applies to artist identity, not to how a track was produced. A musician who uses AI tools during production, for mixing or mastering, for example, won't be flagged as long as their public profile represents a real person. The badge is specifically meant for cases where the artist itself, not just the music, is synthetic.
As AI-generated music is rising on streaming platforms, other services are adopting similar moves. Deezer, a competing streaming service, said in April that AI-generated tracks made up a large share of new daily uploads to its catalog, putting the number in the tens of thousands per day. Fully AI-generated acts have also gained real traction with listeners, including the band Velvet Sundown, which went viral earlier this year despite not being made up of real musicians.
Royalties for AI Persona tracks are not affected by the new policy. Spotify's approach targets visibility rather than payouts, which puts it in contrast with TIDAL, which announced in July that it would strip AI-generated tracks of royalties while still keeping them in its catalog.
The AI Persona label is part of a broader set of transparency features Spotify has rolled out this year, including the "Verified by Spotify" badge for confirmed authentic artist accounts and AI-related song credit disclosures. Spotify also plans to introduce a tool that lets listeners report suspected AI Persona profiles that haven't been labeled, along with an appeals process for artists who believe they were mislabeled.
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