IFPI Sweden Bans AI-Generated Hit Song from National Charts, Sparking Industry Debate

Song banned from Swedish charts for being AI creation

Backed by a finger-picked acoustic guitar melody, it weaves a tale of late-night heartbreak, broken promises and shattered hopes. "Your steps in the night, I hear them go," sings the artist known as Jacub in a haunting voice. "We stood in the rain at your gate and ran out and everything went fast. Now I know you are not mine, your promises came to nothing." It quickly became Sweden's biggest song of 2026 so far, amassing more than five million Spotify streams in a matter of weeks, putting it at the top of the platform's Swedish Top 50. However, journalists who began investigating Jacub's identity found that the artist had no significant social media profile, media appearances or tour dates. When investigative journalist Emanuel Karlsten began digging deeper, he found that the song was registered to a group of executives connected to Stellar Music, a music publishing and marketing firm based in Denmark. Two of the individuals work in Stellar's AI department. The producers - calling themselves Team Jacub - issued a lengthy email to Karlsten, insisting their creative process had been misunderstood. "We are not an anonymous tech company that just 'pressed a button,'" they wrote. "The team behind Jacub consists of experienced music creators, songwriters, and producers who have invested a lot of time, care, emotions, and financial resources." They described AI as a "tool" or an "assisting instrument" within a "human-controlled creative process". To Team Jacub, they said, the five million Spotify streams were proof of the song's "long-term artistic value." As to whether Jacub was a real person, Team Jacub gave a philosophical response. "That depends on how you define the term," they said. "Jacub is an artistic project developed and carried by a team of human songwriters, producers, and creators. The feelings, stories, and experiences in the music are real, because they come from real people." That response has not impressed the IFPI Sweden music industry organisation, which has blocked the song from appearing in the country's official national charts. "Our rule is that if it is a song that is mainly AI-generated, it does not have the right to be on the top list," said Ludvig Werner, head of IFPI. Sweden is positioning itself as a global laboratory for the AI economy, amid concerns that AI could cut revenues to the country's music creators by up to a quarter within the next two years. Music rights society Svenska Tonsättares Internationella Musikbyrå (STIM) launched a licensing system last September, allowing tech firms to legally train their AI models on copyrighted works in return for royalty payments. At the launch, Lina Heyman from STIM described the framework as "the world's first collective AI licence". She said it would "show that it is possible to embrace disruption without undermining human creativity." Sweden's chart ban on Jag vet, du är inte min is tougher than the approach taken by international organisations like Billboard, regarded as the world authority on music rankings. AI-generated tracks have featured in some of its specialist charts. Billboard says that its charts reflect the tastes of listeners. Tracks qualify if they meet its criteria for sales, streams and airplay, even if they have been generated by algorithms. Bandcamp, a platform known for supporting independent artists, has taken a stricter position, however. It has prohibited music that is "generated wholly or in substantial part by AI." That includes tracks composed or produced by AI or using voice clones. AI-generated music is forecast to explode in the coming years into an industry worth billions of pounds. As the needle drops on a new era of digital music creation, the controversy in Sweden over Jacub suggests that for now at least it is human musicians not machines who still call the tune.

Partly AI-generated folk-pop hit barred from Sweden's official charts

Song that topped Spotify in Sweden has been ruled ineligible after its creator was revealed to be partly AI-made A hit song has been excluded from Sweden's official chart after it emerged the "artist" behind it is an AI creation. I know, you're not mine - or Jag vet, du är inte min in Swedish - by a singer called Jacub has been a streaming success in Sweden, topping the Spotify rankings in the country. However, the Swedish music trade body has excluded the song from the domestic official chart after learning it was AI-generated. "Jacub's track has been excluded from Sweden's official chart, Sverigetopplistan, which is compiled by IFPI Sweden. While the song appears on Spotify's own charts, it does not qualify for inclusion on the official chart under the current rules," said an IFPI Sweden spokesperson. Ludvig Werber, IFPI Sweden's chief executive, said: "Our rule is that if it is a song that is mainly AI-generated, it does not have the right to be on the top list." I know, you're not mine is an acoustic guitar-led folk-pop song, with the artist's profile page on Spotify illustrated by a sketch of a bearded, T-shirt-wearing male. The song has been streamed more than 5m times globally, with 200,000 in Sweden. It is part of a six-track EP called Kärleken är Bränd, or Love is Burned. IFPI Sweden acted after an investigative journalist, Emanuel Karlsten, revealed the song was registered to a Danish music publisher called Stellar, with two of the credited rights holders working in the company's AI department. "What emerges is a picture of a music publisher that wants to experiment with new music and new kinds of artists. Who likes to push the limits of the audience's tolerance threshold for artificial music and artificial artists," wrote Karlsten. In a statement, Stellar said "the artist Jacub's voice and parts of the music are generated with the help of AI as a tool in our creative process". Stellar said it was "first and foremost" a music company run by creative professionals and not a tech or AI outfit. The company added that creating a hit song had required "something different" to simply prompting an AI tool to create a tune. "We are passionate and experienced music professionals who have invested large amounts of time, energy and dedication in the songwriting and production of this release, and the creation has been a process that has been guided by a clear artistic vision," said the company. Stellar also said it was against "AI music slop", the term for mass-produced AI content that is often nonsensical and surreal. Spotify does not require music to be labelled as AI generated, but has been cracking down on AI-made spam tracks as every play more than 30 seconds long generates a royalty for the scammer behind it - and dilutes payments to legitimate artists. Jacub is not the first AI artist to score a hit with audiences. A "band" called the Velvet Sundown amassed more than 1m streams on Spotify last year before it emerged the group was AI-generated, including its promotional images and backstory as well as the music. Its most popular song has now accumulated 4m streams on the platform. Ed Newton-Rex, a composer and campaigner for protecting artists' copyright, said Jacub's success underlined the need for mandatory AI labelling. "If Spotify told users when they were listening to AI music this wouldn't have made it so high in the charts, taking streams and royalties away from human musicians. Governments must require that AI-generated works be prominently labelled as a matter of urgency," he said. Last year Spotify, which is based in Sweden, said it is backing a new industry standard for disclosing the use of AI in creating a track. The product is being developed by a tech and music-industry backed non profit called DDEX. Artists' use of the standard on the platform will be voluntary, said Spotify, and they will not be forced to label music as entirely or partly AI created.