Apple Music to enforce mandatory AI labels on AI-generated content later this year

Apple Music will reportedly label any AI-made tracks later this year - Engadget

The upcoming feature expands its Transparency Tags for marking slop songs. Variety reports that Apple is working on a "Made With AI" tag to use in its Apple Music service. The publication says that this label will be required if "a material portion of the content" involved use of generative AI. There's no publicly known timeline for when the tags will begin appearing or if there's a more precise definition of what use cases will merit the label. We've reached out to Apple for confirmation of this upcoming feature and will update if we receive a response. Earlier this year, Apple added support for Transparency Tags, which allowed AI-generated tracks to be marked accordingly so listeners would know what they were hearing. However, the move seemed a bit half-hearted since that designation is only applied at labels' and distributors' discretion. It appears that this new policy will create a more formal requirement for AI labeling. Generative AI has caused a lot of upheaval across creative fields, and music is no exception. Last month, several major labels called for prohibiting slop from being included in global music charts. This year has also seen interesting stats and tools to identify gen-AI music emerging from, of all places, the niche streaming service Deezer. Other streaming platforms have varied in how aggressively they are trying to de-influence or embrace AI.

Apple Music will soon get visible labels for AI-generated content

Apple has shared more details about the AI labeling requirements it announced for Apple Music back in March. Here are the details. AI-generated material will be visibly labeled on Apple Music Earlier this year, Apple announced that Apple Music would soon require AI transparency disclosures for new artwork, tracks, compositions, and music videos added to the platform. Now, as spotted by The Hollywood Reporter, the company has shared more details about how that is going to work. According to THR, Apple says AI labels will come to Apple Music "later this year," marking the first time the service has given a general ETA for the feature. In its original announcement, Apple Music reportedly simply said these disclosures would be required in the future. But in a new email seen by THR and sent to creators this morning, the platform says AI-generated material will be visibly labeled to listeners on Apple Music later this year. From THR: With the upcoming AI labels set to make those tags visible to Apple Music labels, "content providers will be required to include AI Transparency Tags in any instance where AI was used to create a material portion of the content, including tracks that are AI platform generated," Apple Music said. "We define AI-platform-generated content as anything that is primarily derived from a generative AI service." Apple Music's move is just the latest example of how streaming platforms are trying to address the influx of AI-generated music as more and more artists incorporate generative AI into their production processes. Spotify recently said it would keep music from AI Personas out of editorial and algorithmic recommendations by default, while Deezer announced last year that fully AI-generated tracks would be excluded from recommendations and editorial playlists. Deezer also announced last month that fully AI-generated music had surpassed 50% of its daily new music uploads for the first time. In Apple Music's case, the platform's lead Oliver Schusser recently appeared on Billboard's On the Record podcast, where he said that although more than a third of the music uploaded to Apple Music each month is fully AI-generated, it accounts for less than 0.5% of listening on the service. You can watch the hour-long conversation below: Apple Music requires an active subscription. You can sign up for $11.99 per month, with 1 month free, or as part of the Apple One bundle. Worth checking out on Amazon

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AI-generated content in the Apple Music app may get easier than ever to spot, as record labels and distributors will be required to label it as such later in 2026. Back in March 2026, Apple introduced Transparency Tags for Apple Music. These are entirely optional disclosure labels, which were used to indicate that specific content was "materially generated" with the help of artificial intelligence. At the time, Apple said it believed distributors should "take an active role in reporting when the content they deliver is created using AI," and that its AI-focused tags were "the first concrete step" in the process. So far, however, Apple hasn't forced labels or distributors to label AI-generated content, but that might soon change. In an email to Apple Music content distributors, detailed by The Hollywood Reporter, Apple now says that "content providers will be required to include AI Transparency Tags in any instance where AI was used to create a material portion of the content, including tracks that are AI platform generated." The change is set to take effect later this year, though it remains to be seen how Apple aims to enforce its new requirements. At the time of writing, Apple's AI Transparency Tags are not visible to end users of Apple Music. However, the company's email to Apple Music content distributors says that it wants to "provide listeners with as much transparency as possible," so there's always a chance the AI-disclosure tags will become visible to all. Apple's decision to force distributors and record labels to use AI labels is a bit of a pivot, compared to its earlier stance. Even so, the move is part of a larger strategy to combat misleading AI-generated content. Apple's efforts to reduce AI spam, impersonation, and play count manipulation In an open letter to the music industry, back in May 2026, Apple highlighted the benefits of AI, but cautioned that artificial intelligence should never replace artists, but only amplify their work. To that end, Apple claims that it has created internal tools to identify AI-made tracks, fight spam tracks, and combat impersonation, all by monitoring music streams. If an AI-generated track is getting Apple Music can even automatically pull AI-generated tracks that get their plays from manipulated streams. In 2025, Apple redistributed royalties from approximately 2 billion manipulated streams, with the funds diverted to the company's payout pool for artists and labels. Apple has "developed technology in-house that would allow us to exactly see what music people are delivering us," said Apple Music VP Oliver Schusser in April 2026. He added that these tools let Apple see "what AI [model] it is and all that." The company's current assortment of AI and spam-prevention tools is seemingly effective. According to Schusser, more than a third of songs uploaded to the Apple Music service are "100% AI," but listening remains below 0.5%. In other words, nobody's actually listening to these fully AI-generated songs. How other music streaming services handle AI disclosure Overall, Apple's efforts targeting the abuse of AI are admirable, but the company is late to the party, especially compared to Deezer's approach. Apple Music rival Deezer has had AI-detection systems for well over a year, catching 60,000 AI-generated songs each day. Its CEO claimed most AI-generated content on Deezer was used to commit fraud. Spotify, meanwhile, has taken a restrictive yet nuanced approach regarding AI. The streaming service excludes songs associated with "AI Personas" from editorial recommendations. Artists themselves have the option to disclose whether they use generative AI by labeling their profile as an AI Persona, but Spotify itself will step in and apply the label if it's deemed necessary. Once a preset listener threshold is met, Spotify will apply the AI Persona badge if an artist's public identity "appears to represent photorealistic AI-generated identities." Notably, however, the AI Persona badge will display if the designation was applied by Spotify or by the artist themselves. Artists will have the option to appeal Spotify's decisions as well. While it remains to be seen when Apple Music's AI label requirements will roll out, Spotify's AI Persona badges will become available in mid-September 2026, while Deezer's anti-AI measures remain in use. All in all, Apple's approach to AI in music is now more decisive, with its idea of mandatory labels. The company recognizes the potential of AI, and while it hasn't banned AI songs outright, it won't tolerate manipulated play counts or impersonation of real human artists.

Apple Music to Launch Labels on AI Tracks Later This Year

Apple Music will soon launch labels on songs created with artificial intelligence, the company said in an email sent out to industry partners on Thursday. In the email, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, the streaming service said that AI music labels will come "later this year," though Apple Music didn't disclose a specific launch date. The new labels come months after Apple Music launched transparency tags back in March, available for record labels and music distributors to disclose when content uploaded was "materially generated using AI." With the upcoming AI labels set to make those tags visible to Apple Music labels, "content providers will be required to include AI Transparency Tags in any instance where AI was used to create a material portion of the content, including tracks that are AI platform generated," Apple Music said. "We define AI-platform-generated content as anything that is primarily derived from a generative AI service." Apple Music didn't include any details on how the requirements will be enforced. Apple Music's announcement comes weeks after an RIAA and IFPI-led initiative called upon the streaming services to add AI labels to the platform in a manner similar to how explicit tracks are disclosed. Apple's not the only major streaming service starting to implement more rigorous policies around AI content. Earlier in August, Spotify announced that the service would soon start labeling AI artists on the platform, and the company said those artists would not be included in editorial or algorithmic recommendations. Spotify's new labeling does not technically label the songs themselves but rather the profiles attached to them. For Apple Music, this is just the latest policy shift as the company looks to address AI and the concerns of fraud and streaming manipulation that comes with it. As The Hollywood Reporter first reported in January, the company also doubled its penalty fees on those caught engaging in streaming fraud, with Apple Music head Oliver Schusser acknowledging the proliferation of AI content was a factor in the decision. Schusser subsequently told Billboard that over a third of its new monthly uploads were AI-generated songs. The actual usage around AI songs, however, was less than 1 percent.