Apple Music is flagging AI slop before Spotify has even started — but there's a catch

• Apple Music is rolling out its own system for flagging AI-generated music
• 'Transparency Tags' will focus on visual elements as well as music composition
• The catch is that the responsibility lies with record labels and distributors

The war between AI and the best music streaming services continues, and Apple Music could be next to storm the battlefield with its own AI music tagging system.

Dubbed ‘Transparency Tags’, Apple’s flagship music platform is tipped to roll out a new metadata system to help identify AI-generated and AI-assisted music. This was revealed in a newsletter sent out to industry partners on March 4, but there’s one big caveat that seems quite contradictory — the tagging responsibility lies with record labels and distributors.

Before content is submitted to Apple Music, record labels and distributors will have the option to disclose whether AI has been used during the production process, a method that Apple is implementing to increase transparency on how companies use AI in music production. The system will focus on four creative aspects.

The first is the music itself, or the ‘Track’ tag, which will be used to show if AI has contributed to a material portion of the audio recording. This tag is at the track-level only. On a similar note, the ‘Composition’ tag will be used to highlight that AI was used in a material portion of the music composition, and also flags AI-generated lyrics.

But Apple Music is taking it a step further with Transparency Tags that have a visual focus. As well as audio tags, Apple Music is rolling out an ‘Artwork’ tag that, as its name implies, flags AI-generated static and motion imagery used on the cover of an album or single. The ‘Music Video’ tag is similar, applying to visual components to albums and standalone videos.

Though the newsletter has been limited to the eyes of industry partners, Music Business World shared an excerpt from the announcement; “Proper tagging of content is the first step in giving the music industry the data and tools needed to develop thoughtful policies around AI”, the outlet starts. “We believe labels and distributors must take an active role in reporting when the content they deliver is created using AI.”

Despite the information we have so far, Apple hasn’t disclosed when Transparency Tags will roll out, however we’ve reached out for further comment and will update this story if we find out more. It’s not surprising to see that Apple Music is taking initiative before Spotify has even started, but its frustrating loophole is all a bit ‘one step forward, two steps back’.

It's optional, for now…

Putting a responsibility like this on record labels and music distributors welcomes a slew of issues. For one, since it’s essentially an opt-in program, it doesn’t guarantee 100% transparency as labels can easily choose not to disclose such information, but who can blame them?

You could deliver the best song in the world, but having an obtrusive ‘AI’ tag slapped onto your song isn’t the most attractive — as a passionate music fan, I’d immediately skip a song if it had this. It’s also a hindrance to streaming numbers, which labels aren’t willing to risk. Even if a song only has a tiny portion of AI-generated audio for creative purposes, most listeners would assume the whole song is AI-generated and skip accordingly.

That said, the opt-in system could simply be a temporary placeholder for now, as Music Business World reports that Transparency Tags may become a required practice for labels and distributors when delivering content to Apple Music. It’s a very different approach to the ones its rivals have taken. Deezer, for example, has developed its own AI detection tool which it recently made available to competitors while Bandcamp has banned AI-generated music altogether.

That just leaves Spotify to join the growing army of music streamers against AI, but although it tightened new impersonation rules for music uploads, it has yet to follow suit with a legitimate system that clearly labels AI slop.

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