You'll soon know if Artificial Intelligence (AI) created the music you're streaming.
Spotify just revealed that it's introducing a new AI Persona badge to help you spot profiles that don't belong to real human artists.
The streaming giant said in a blog post: "Listeners have been clear in telling us that they don’t like seeing an artist profile that seems human, only to find out that the persona is AI-generated.
"That’s why, starting mid-September, you’ll begin to see an AI Persona badge on some artist profiles. The badge signals to listeners that an artist’s identity may be AI-generated and does not represent a real person.
"Alongside artist profiles that self-disclose as AI Personas, we will also start applying badges to relevant profiles."
This means artists can flag their own profiles as AI Personas through the Spotify for Artists dashboard — with the intention that creators are upfront about their identity.
Spotify's own review team will also be checking profiles that appear to use photorealistic AI-generated images and names to pass themselves off as real people. They're starting with artists who've already hit certain audience size thresholds, which means the badges should cover the vast majority of profiles that listeners are visiting.
You'll be able to spot the badge in several places — on artist profile banners, in the About section, within search results, and alongside tracks in playlists. Once you tap on it, you'll see whether the artist came clean themselves or whether Spotify's team had to step in and make the call.
If Spotify does apply the label, the artist gets notified and can either accept it, self-disclose, or appeal the decision. And there's more coming down the line — the company plans to let listeners flag profiles they suspect are AI Personas, sending them straight to the review team. More details on that will follow in the coming months.
The move is part of a broader push the streaming giant has been making this year around artist identity and trust, which has already seen it launch tools like Artist Profile Protection, Verified by Spotify, SongDNA, and AI Credits.
Spotify also won't be recommending music from AI Personas in any of its editorial or algorithm-driven suggestions by default.
For instance, the AI-generated artists won't pop up in your tailored auto-generated playlists like Discover Weekly, Daily Mix, or any other personalised recommendations, unless you've actively chosen to follow one.
This isn't the first major platform to seem to be using these AI badges.
The keen-sighted team at WABetaInfo spotted that the Meta-owned chat app is developing an AI content label that lets admins — someone holding permissions for a group, community, or channel — flag photos and videos created using AI tools, so followers know exactly what they're seeing. It appears to be in the works for both Android and iOS devices.
With AI-altered media becoming increasingly photorealistic, explicit labels could ensure you know exactly what you are viewing, reducing the spread of deepfakes and false content.
It's also becoming a legal requirement in many countries. For instance, the European Union has implemented the EU AI Act demanding that AI-generated media is clearly disclosed, and WhatsApp's new label gives admins a straightforward way to stay on the right side of those rules.
