Spotify allows artists to manually approve releases to combat AI-driven counterfeiting

Spotify is beta testing a new feature called Protect your artist profile Allows artists to review releases before publishing them. Sometimes, songs end up on the wrong artist pages due to mixed up metadata or shared names. But increasingly, artists have been targeted by Scammers And fakes created by artificial intelligence. Profile protection provides a barrier against bad elements.

Everyone from Drake and Beyoncéby experimental composers like William Basinski, and indie rock acts like King Gizzard and Lizard Wizard, fake tracks have appeared under their names on streaming platforms, some of which were likely generated by artificial intelligence. It’s an issue that has sparked a lot of anger among artists, with King Gizzard frontman Stu McKenzie saying, “We are truly doomed“Basinski calls it.”Total bullshit“.

Artists included in the beta will still have to sign up. From then on, any music must be approved before it can be featured on that profile, either by the artist themselves or their team. The review process adds an extra step to releasing songs on Spotify.

While it’s certainly a welcome extra level of protection, if every streaming service requires you to manually approve each release, it could become a serious problem for independent artists and small labels with limited resources. So Spotify is also issuing artist keys to beta participants. This is a unique code that, when included with music, results in automatic approval.

For now, Spotify is calling the feature a “limited beta,” but says it will roll it out “to all artists as soon as possible.”