Tidal doesn’t pay for AI-generated music, but it doesn’t exactly ban it

Waves shared his new ideas about AI-generated music today and how the platform plans to “protect artists” and “inform audiences.” Instead of completely banning, starting July 15 Tidal will list music that it has identified as 100 percent AI-generated imagery. But from today these songs will no longer be monetized. “Tidal’s priority is to ensure that payments go to original works that were directly created, written, and performed by humans. So we cannot claim that payments are made for music that we know was created by AI,” the company said.

The platform didn’t specify what tools it’s using to identify AI-generated music, but the new statement says that as tools improve and become more reliable, it eventually plans to add labels to any downloads that are “AI-generated.” In addition to its own detection tools, Tidal warns that AI-generated music recognition should not be its sole responsibility and that the platform will “begin to enforce” the expectation that music distributors also properly label AI-generated music.

In an effort to prevent the use of any AI-generated tool that “uses a person or group’s music, name or likeness, deceives listeners, or reduces the quality of our service,” starting in mid-July Tidal will also remove or block “AI-generated music that is associated with fraudulent activities.” Those activities may include music designed to deceive listeners or distract from actual artists, high volume music, or “unusual events.”

Competitors Tidal have discussed the amount of AI-generated music with their own tools and policies. In April, Spotify has launched a new verification program while some artists that the company has verified as real people have received a green symbol and a “Verified by Spotify” badge on their profiles, while profiles that promote AI-generated content are not eligible for selection. Deezer as well created tools to recognize all music produced by AI when it is uploaded to reduce its appearance on the platform, it is last month it created a website you can use it to browse your playlists on other platforms to see songs created by AI.