Spotify and Universal Music strike licensing deal for AI-powered covers and remixes tool

Spotify and Universal Music strike deal allowing fan-made AI covers and remixes | TechCrunch

Watch out, Suno. Spotify on Thursday announced it has partnered with Universal Music Group (UMG) to allow fans to use generative AI technology to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs. The tool will launch as a paid add-on available only to Spotify's Premium subscribers and will offer a revenue share with participating artists for the AI-generated music based on their work. The company did not share pricing or a launch date for the new tool, only that the two companies had come to a licensing agreement. However, Spotify had teased its plans last year, noting that it was working with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, Merlin, and Believe to develop artist-first AI products. The AI tools would be created through "upfront agreements, not by asking for forgiveness later," Spotify said at the time, an obvious swipe at other players in the space, like Suno. Among the principles Spotify outlined: artists and rightsholders should be able to choose if and how they participate in AI tools, and if they do, they should be fairly compensated. "Solving hard problems for music is what Spotify does, and fan-made covers and remixes are next. What we're building is grounded in consent, credit, and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part," said Spotify co-CEO Alex Norström, in a statement about the UMG agreement. "Through each technological transformation, we have worked together with Sir Lucian [Chairman & CEO, Universal Music Group] and his team to evolve the music ecosystem into a richer, more beneficial experience for fans and a more rewarding outcome for artists and songwriters." UMG Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge, meanwhile, touted the development as a way for artists to deepen their fan relationships while also creating additional revenue opportunities. There's no word yet on which UMG artists have agreed to participate. While services like Suno and Udio have been pioneers in the AI music space, they moved forward on shaky legal ground when building their AI music-making tools. Unsurprisingly, the major labels quickly sued. In November, Suno ended up settling a $500 million lawsuit with Warner Music Group, which came shortly after Universal Music Group (UMG) had settled its own suit with Udio. Today, Suno is still facing copyright claims from UMG and Sony Music, among others. Udio, meanwhile, has settled with Warner Music and UMG, but is still working to settle with Sony. Seeing demand for this type of activity from consumers, Spotify went straight to the labels for a deal of its own. UMG may be the first of many label partnerships to come, though the company didn't outright say so. The news was shared amid a slew of Investor Day announcements from Spotify on Thursday, which also included an AI-powered audiobook creation tool, AI-powered features for podcasters, a desktop app to produce personal podcasts via AI, and reserved concert tickets for top fans.

Spotify and Universal Music Group Strike a Deal for AI-Powered Remix and Cover Song Tool

If you're someone who believes AI should stay out of the arts, and especially your earbuds, you might want to sit down for this news. On Thursday, Spotify announced a partnership with Universal Music Group that will allow you to use AI tools to create cover songs and remixes on the streaming platform. So imagine At Last by Etta James mixed with the 2010 hit Baby by Justin Bieber, or even mashed up as a country or folk version. The AI-powered tool will not be included in Spotify memberships by default. Instead, it will be a paid add-on option for Spotify Premium members, the music streaming service said. A launch date has yet to be announced. It's unclear whether music artists will have any control over their music being used in fan edits, but we can make an educated guess that artists who own their music outright, such as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, will have the most say. Lucian Grainge, CEO of UMG, said in a statement that the initiative is "designed to support human artistry, deepen fan relationships, and create additional revenue opportunities for artists and songwriters." Alex Norström, co-CEO of Spotify, said: "What we're building is grounded in consent, credit, and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part." Recently, numerous music artists have spoken out against the intersection of AI and music creation, including Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Billie Eilish, Jon Bon Jovi and more. In addition to this partnership, the streaming service also announced Reserved, a new ticket initiative that reserves two tickets for top Spotify Premium subscribers, allowing them to buy tickets for select artists a day before they go on sale to the general public.

Why would you disrespect your favorite artist with an AI remix?

AI covers and remixes of songs are already a blight on the internet. Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are awash in flat reggae versions of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," dinky country renditions of The Weeknd, and monotonous Motown reimaginings of AC/DC. Now, a new tool from Spotify will make them even easier to generate and share. Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) signed a licensing deal that will allow users to generate remixes and covers from UMG's catalog. How exactly it will work, beyond being "powered by generative AI technology," or how much it will cost, is unclear. They're positioning this as a premium subscription add-on service for superfans. According to UMG's CEO Sir Lucian Grainge, it's supposed to "deepen fan relationships." There's no denying that learning to play your favorite song on guitar or dissecting a track to create your own remix can teach you a lot about songcraft and help you appreciate your favorite artist more. But those benefits don't exist when you just prompt AI for a bluegrass version of Beyoncé's "Break My Soul." There's also a tinge of narcissism at play here. Learning to play or sing a song creates a connection to a work and helps you develop a skill. An AI cover is just about shouting, "Look at what I made." Or, more accurately, "Look what I asked a machine to make for me." You can see this at play in the Suno subreddit, where people frequently say they only listen to their own music. People there proudly proclaim that they don't listen to artists on Spotify or other streaming services anymore, they only listen to what they generate using Suno. Those are the people who will pay for Spotify's remixing tool. Not Swifties looking to build a deeper connection with Taylor. It will be people who think that, somehow, whatever they generate will be better than what a skilled remixer can create. They will convince themselves that they can somehow improve on the work of an army of the most talented songwriters in the industry, with some clever prompting. But, they're not actually engaging with the art in any meaningful way, and they're certainly not creating art themselves. Frankly, the whole thing feels disrespectful to the concept of human creativity and to the artist serving as the source material. And what superfan wants to disrespect their favorite artist? At best, people prompting AI covers are simply having a laugh and churning out genre mashups. Which you could argue is a harmless use of AI, but it's also not a particularly valuable one. Obviously, I can't speak to the quality of Spotify's specific generative AI output, as the tool hasn't been released yet. But I've spent enough time with Suno and other generative AI music tools to tell you that what they spit out is dull and lifeless. Is the idea of a fiddle-driven version of the Dead Kennedys' "California Über Alles" amusing? Sure. But Suno's execution somehow sucks the fun out of it. It makes no unexpected choices. It sands down any rough edges. (It also generated cover art featuring a swastika, which is... something.) I'd rather hear a person play and sing a fiddle cover of the song on their own in a bedroom, recorded on an iPhone, than listen to the Suno version ever again. For whatever an amateur recording might lack in production value, at least it would have charm. Now, to be clear, taking a song and covering it in an unexpected style is a time-tested recipe for success. It can be played for laughs, as with The Gourds' cover of "Gin and Juice." Or it can reveal unappreciated beauty and depth, like on Travis' "Baby One More Time," or the Flaming Lips' take on Kylie Minogue. But turning "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" into a black metal song demands careful thought about instrumentation, arrangement, and a genuine appreciation for the original. Creator Mac Glocky frequently reimagines songs as if they were created by other artists. Where an AI might be able to make a version of "Mr. Blue Sky" that superficially resembles the Deftones, Mac demonstrates a deep understanding of the source material. He doesn't just add distortion and scream the lyrics, he makes melodic and arrangement choices that genuinely feel like something Chino Moreno and Stephen Carpenter might do. He transforms the song in a way that is distinctly human. The same is true of remixes. The best of them recontextualize a song, ratcheting up certain traits or recasting them for play in a different venue. The steady dance punk groove of Bloc Party's "Banquet" becomes a full-throated dancefloor banger, Missy Elliott's slinky "Get Your Freak On" morphs into a glitchy punk rock rager, and La Roux's "Bulletproof" goes from '80s tinged pop to a moody slowburn. But these covers and remixes were made by people who knew their craft and developed an understanding of a song. Whatever creative value there is in fan-made remixes is diminished when the level of engagement is reduced to text prompts.

Spotify cranks up AI push with Universal Music deal, lays out bold growth targets

May 21 (Reuters) - Spotify (SPOT.N), opens new tab on Thursday laid out an ambitious roadmap to drive growth and profitability through the end of the decade, doubling down with AI-powered features to boost user engagement and partnering with Universal Music, sending shares up 16%. The Swedish audio-streaming giant unveiled a slate of new offerings, including "Reserved," which lets eligible premium subscribers buy up to two tickets to their favorite artist's concert before they are offered to the general public for sale, and "Personal Podcasts," an AI tool that generates custom podcasts from user prompts. It also ⁠announced a deal with Universal Music Group (UMG.AS), opens new tab, allowing subscribers to create AI-generated covers and remixes of tracks by some of the label's artists, the first time Spotify has allowed its users to create AI content. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal or name artists whose music will be part of the new AI remix feature, but said the new tool would help create an additional source of income for artists and songwriters. Universal Music represents several major artists including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Drake. The moves offer a glimpse of how recently appointed co-CEOs Alex Norstrom and Gustav Soderstrom are starting to reshape Spotify's strategy as it seeks to fend off mounting competition from AI music startups such as ⁠Udio and Suno and larger podcast rivals including YouTube and Netflix. "What we're building is grounded in consent, credit and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part," Norstrom said. Spotify expects a mid-teens compounded annual revenue growth rate through 2030 and projected gross margins between 35% and 40%. Last year, it reported revenue growth of around 10% and ⁠a gross margin of 32%. The company also expects its operating margin to rise above 20%. It reported an operating margin of 12.8% in 2025. Among its new features is "Studio by Spotify Labs," an AI-powered desktop app that can take actions on behalf of ⁠users to create personalized content. A preview-version of the app will soon be available for premium users in more than 20 markets. The company is also rolling out "Memberships," to allow podcasters to build recurring revenue streams directly from their most ⁠dedicated listeners. Spotify said it would also expand Audiobooks+ with new subscription tiers. The product is on track to generate $100 million in annualized recurring revenue. Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda and Diti Pujara Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Spotify and Universal are building an AI tool for covers and remixes - Engadget

Spotify just announced a partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG) to create a tool that lets fans make covers and remixes. It'll be a paid add-on for Premium subscribers, with some of that money going to the original artists whose work is being repurposed. Spotify says that artists have to opt in to the program. It's being marketed as a new way for artists and creators to make money, as the platform states the tool will "open up additional revenue streams and new ways to drive discovery." Spotify co-CEO Alex Norström says the platform will "evolve the music ecosystem into a richer, more beneficial experience for fans and a more rewarding outcome for artists and songwriters." The whole thing is being called an "AI-driven" experience, which means that users will be able to whip up slopified versions of real songs that use a slopified version of their voice or whatever. It seems similar to Suno, but with actual licenses. We reached out to Spotify for specifics as to how this tool will work and if there will be a way for people to cover songs without AI. There's no launch window as yet.

Spotify and Universal sign licensing deal for AI covers and remixes

Premium subscribers will be able to generate AI versions of songs by participating UMG artists. The financial terms were not disclosed. Spotify and Universal Music Group have signed licensing agreements that will let premium subscribers generate AI covers and remixes of songs by participating UMG artists, the two companies said on Thursday. It is the first time the streaming service has formally licensed generative AI on top of its catalogue, and the most concrete answer the major-label system has given so far to the question of how AI-made music should be paid for. The product, which the companies described as launching as a paid add-on for Premium users, has no public release date. UMG and Spotify said the model is built around "consent, credit, and compensation," with artists and songwriters opting in and receiving a share of revenue from the AI-generated versions of their work. Which UMG artists have signed on was not disclosed; the label's roster includes Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Drake and Billie Eilish, though that does not imply any of them have agreed to participate. Markets read the deal as material. Spotify shares rose around 14-16% on the day, on the view that AI-generated remixes give the company a new revenue line at a moment when its core subscription business is maturing. The companies did not disclose financial terms, including how the revenue split between Spotify, UMG, and individual artists will work. The licensing model is significant for what it tries to settle. AI music tools have spent the last two years operating in a grey zone, with services such as Suno and Udio facing lawsuits from the major labels for training on copyrighted catalogues without permission. By licensing the rights at the platform layer and letting users generate inside Spotify rather than upload AI tracks to it, the two companies are sketching a structure in which the label, the artist, the songwriter, and the platform all collect on the same generated file. The risk Spotify needs to manage is the one it has been criticised for not managing well in the past. The platform has been accused of letting AI-generated tracks proliferate on the catalogues of dead artists without estate approval, and of being slow to label or detect AI music in general, a contrast TNW covered in detail last year. A licensed creator tool, with the rights cleared upstream, is a cleaner story to tell investors and regulators than an enforcement system trying to police uploads after the fact. Whether it is a cleaner story for artists depends entirely on terms that have not been published. Songwriters have historically received the thinnest slice of streaming revenue, and the unanswered question is whether the new licensing tier corrects that or simply layers another revenue category on top of an existing imbalance. The deal also lands the same week that Spotify's catalogue of AI-generated content remained, by its own admission, unlabelled. The remix product, when it launches, will be the first AI music on the platform with paperwork attached. The rest of the catalogue is still the harder problem.

Spotify says its AI remix tool protects artists from unregulated 'slop'

Critics of platform's proposed new feature say it could accelerate the spread of machine-generated music Spotify's chief executive has said the company's move into AI-generated music offers users and creators a better alternative to unregulated AI slop. Last week, the platform announced a new feature in which premium users will be allowed to create their own, AI-generated remixes and song covers using music from participating artists. The feature comes as a part of a deal with Universal Music Group that sent Spotify's shares up 16% last week. Alex Norström, CEO of Spotify, told the Financial Times the streamer was trying to offer a "controlled" alternative, in which musicians can consent to use of their work and make money from it, as opposed to having it pirated. "There's a lot of rogue attempts at this," he added. Spotify's feature will cost extra money, and allow "one song to become 10,000", said Norström. Details have yet to emerge on how this new feature will work, though; for example, whether user-generated AI remixes will be shareable, or private. It is also unclear how Spotify might label user-generated AI content if it is shareable. Ed Newton-Rex, a composer and campaigner for protecting artists' copyright, said: "I think if you are going to have AI music, it's clearly better that you have AI music that is rooted in consent." However, he said, the feature could - depending on its design - lead to human artists facing greater competition from AI-generated work, in a "vicious circle" that would force even sceptical artists to take part. "The big question will be whether fans can share remixes they make for other people to listen to. If they can, I think you get into dangerous territory. These AI remixes will flood Spotify and drown out other songs, which will in turn put pressure on more musicians to sign up to the AI remix feature." There appears to be clear demand for AI-generated music. Last year, three AI-generated songs topped music charts, including Spotify's, highlighting a growing phenomenon of AI music flooding major platforms and, increasingly, being indistinguishable from human-made music. "AI music has gotten much better very quickly, and so if people hear a song they like and they're not thinking about whether or not it's AI. Then there's demand for it like there's demand for any music," said Newton-Rex. Artificial intelligence is a grave concern for the music industry, and creative industries more broadly. In March, the UK government backtracked on a plan to let AI companies use copyrighted work without permission, after an outcry from thousands of artists including Elton John and Dua Lipa. Leading AI companies, including Meta and OpenAI, have been sued for allegedly using books, newspaper articles and other copyrighted materials to train AI models without the consent of authors and creators. In a new development last week, two Meta employees were individually sued for allegedly pirating a terabyte of books in order to train Llama. Newton-Rex said Norström's decision to frame Spotify's move as a choice to prioritise curated AI content over AI slop elided the more real, pressing competition between human artists and AI-written music. "The framing is absolutely AI music versus human music. Whenever someone listens to AI music on Spotify, they are not listening to a song that is simply made by a human. There are only so many hours that you listen to music in a day."

Spotify will let you use AI to make covers and remixes of your favourite songs, for an extra fee

Spotify and Universal Music are making AI-generated covers and remixes an official feature. If you have ever wished you could hear your favourite song in a completely different style, or put your own spin on it? Spotify is about to make that happen. The streaming platform announced a new AI-powered tool that will let Premium subscribers create covers and remixes of songs from participating artists. The tool comes out of a landmark licensing deal between Spotify and Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, whose roster includes Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, and Post Malone. It will launch as a paid add-on for Premium subscribers, though no release date or exact pricing details have been confirmed yet. How will Spotify's AI cover and remix tool work for fans and artists? The new feature lets fans use generative AI to produce their own versions of licensed songs and share them on the platform. Artists who opt into the program will collect royalties on any AI-generated covers or remixes made from their music, creating a new revenue stream on top of what they already earn from regular streams. Recommended Videos Artists can also choose to opt out entirely. Spotify Co-CEO Alex Norström described the tool as being built on consent, credit, and compensation. What makes this different from the AI music already on Spotify? Spotify has faced criticism for AI-generated content flooding its library. The platform removed 75 million spammy tracks last year before introducing AI content tagging. This one tries a different angle though, putting AI in the hands of fans while making sure artists stay in control and actually get paid for it. Whether people will embrace AI remixes or treat them the same way they have treated the wave of AI slop already clogging up streaming platforms, remains to be seen. Spotify also added verified podcast badges recently to help listeners tell real hosts apart from AI clones, and gave artists more control over how AI-generated content appears alongside their music.

Spotify and Universal Launch AI Remix Tool for Fan-Made Covers - Decrypt

The deal comes as YouTube and other platforms expand AI remix tools for users. Taylor Swift fans may soon be able to legally generate AI remixes of her songs on Spotify. Spotify and Universal Music Group on Thursday announced licensing agreements that will allow Spotify Premium users to create AI-generated covers and remixes using music from participating artists and songwriters. "The most valuable innovations in the music business always bring artists and fans closer together," Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Group, Lucian Grainge said in a statement. "That principle is at the heart of this pioneering AI-enabled superfan initiative, which is designed to support human artistry, deepen fan relationships, and create additional revenue opportunities for artists and songwriters." Universal Music Group represents artists including Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, The Weeknd, Sabrina Carpenter, Lana Del Rey, Post Malone, Billie Eilish, and Olivia Rodrigo. The fight over AI-generated music grew in 2023 after a fake song using AI versions of Drake and The Weeknd's voices spread across Spotify and YouTube before Universal Music Group forced platforms to remove it. More recently, Taylor Swift moved to trademark parts of her voice and image after AI-generated deepfakes and fake endorsements targeting the singer spread online. The announcement also comes as tech platforms increasingly experiment with AI remix tools. Earlier this week at Google I/O, YouTube introduced a Shorts Remix feature powered by Gemini Omni that allows users to reimagine other people's videos by turning them into anime clips, pixel art, or altered scenes with added characters and effects. Spotify said the new tool will launch as a paid add-on for Spotify Premium subscribers. Fans will be able to generate licensed covers and remixes using generative AI technology, while participating artists and songwriters will receive compensation tied to the AI-generated works created on the platform. "Solving hard problems for music is what Spotify does, and fan-made covers and remixes are next," Spotify Co-CEO Alex Norström said in a statement. "What we're building is grounded in consent, credit, and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part."

Spotify co-CEO doubles down on move to AI-generated music

Spotify's latest move to allow AI-generated music on its platform has led to widespread concerns about human artists being pushed out and royalty dilution. The co-CEO of music streaming platform Spotify, Alex Norström, has continued to claim that the company's decision to move to AI-generated music is a better option than AI slop and piracy. The company recently unveiled a new feature which will allow premium users to make their own, AI-generated song covers and remixes with music from other artists who choose to take part. This new paid add-on is part of a deal with Universal Music Group and will be available on Spotify'sapp. According to the platform, the tool could create an additional income stream for songwriters and artists, on top of royalties. However, it is unknown which artists will take part in this licensing deal at the moment, with Universal Music also representing major artists like Arianda Grande, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. "Solving hard problems for music is what Spotify does, and fan-made covers and remixes are next," Norström said in a statement. "What we're building is grounded in consent, credit, and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part. "Through each technological transformation, we have worked together with Sir Lucian [Grainge, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group] and his team to evolve the music ecosystem into a richer, more beneficial experience for fans and a more rewarding outcome for artists and songwriters." However, exact details about how this new service will work, such as whether AI remixes will be private or shareable, are yet to be revealed. Another concern is how Spotify could label shareable user-generated AI content. "The most valuable innovations in the music business always bring artists and fans closer together," Grainge said. "That principle is at the heart of this pioneering AI-enabled superfan initiative, which is designed to support human artistry, deepen fan relationships, and create additional revenue opportunities for artists and songwriters." Euronews Next has contacted Spotify for comment. Could Spotify's new move marginalise human artists? Despite Norström insisting that Spotify's new feature is an attempt to distinguish carefully curated AI music from slop, several artists continue to be concerned that human artists may be pushed out of the industry. One of the biggest concerns is that greater competition from AI-generated music could lead to more and more artists reluctantly taking part in the feature, which may create a vicious cycle of sorts. "I think if you are going to have AI music, it's clearly better that you have AI music that is rooted in consent," Ed Newton-Rex, a composer and campaigner for artists' copyright said, as reported by The Guardian. "The big question will be whether fans can share remixes they make for other people to listen to," he added. "If they can, I think you get into dangerous territory. These AI remixes will flood Spotify and drown out other songs, which will in turn put pressure on more musicians to sign up to the AI remix feature." This comes as more listeners appear unconcerned about whether a track is created by a human or generated using AI - so long as they enjoy the music. AI-generated songs have already been topping music charts in the last year, highlighting growing demand. Major tech companies like OpenAI and Meta have already been sued for allegedly using content from newspapers, books and other copyrighted sources without consent to train AI models. There are also concerns of AI music diluting royalties, leaving even less income for human artists, as well as impersonation of styles, voices, and likeness without consent. Currently, Spotify uses a Verified by Spotify badge and internal detection technology to help users distinguish human artists from AI and spam.

'There's a lot of rogue attempts at this': Amid AI music remixing plans, Spotify chief says he wants the company to be 'the one that's legal' and 'the one that's controlled'

Music streaming platform Spotify announced a licensing deal with Universal Music Group last week which would allow subscribers to create AI-generated covers and remixes of songs from participating artists, who would then be compensated. The tool would be a paid extra to "create an additional source of income for artists and songwriters." Now, Spotify co-chief executive Alex Norström has spoken to The Financial Times about the move, pitching these efforts as a better alternative to the AI slop currently oozing all over the internet. "There's a lot of rogue attempts at this," said Norström, describing his wish to make Spotify the "one that's legal" and "the one that's controlled." Norström said that Spotify and Universal music had "several discussions" in order to negotiate the agreement, and described it as a "win-win situation" for all involved. The tool would allow "one song to become 10,000 songs," according to the CEO, although he appears to have recognised the potential controversy over creative platforms leaning into the tech. "There's some negativity out there about AI for sure," the Spotify chief said. "I think it's reasonable because some of it is misaligned AI." Misaligned is one way to put it. AI slop has become the term of the moment in many internet circles, as everyone from gamers to movie fans voice their (usually negative) opinions on AI-created works. And in a world where AI can crank out creatively-dubious (if not bereft) content at a vast rate of knots, I'm not sure providing a version of it as a service for music listeners, then funnelling an unknown percentage back to the original artists through royalties, is the overall solution. Better? Perhaps. It beats having your creations AI-transformed for free without any form of credit or compensation, I suppose. Still, the music industry appears to be rightly worried about the effects of AI tools upon its output. Deezer, a competing platform, recently announced that it was being bombarded by "nearly 75,000" AI-created tunes every day, and that 97% of survey respondents asked couldn't tell the difference between AI-created music and its human equivalent. Putting some control back in the hands of the individual user, for an artist-recompensating fee? It's not the worst idea I've ever heard, but I very much doubt it's the solution for ever-more-financially-squeezed musicians overall. And as for the creative value of these remixes and covers? Well, I guess we'll let the Spotify userbase decide. Just remember where most of your favourite tunes came from in the first place, yes?

Spotify and Universal Music agree deal to let subscribers create AI remixes

Licensing agreement will allow listeners to use AI to create content on streaming platform for first time Spotify and Universal Music Group have agreed on a deal that will allow subscribers to generate song covers and remixes using artificial intelligence. The licensing agreement is the first time the Swedish streaming company will allow listeners to use AI to create content through its platform. It is expected to be in the form of a paid add-on available on Spotify's app. Premium users will be able to remix songs from participating artists and create AI-driven licensed covers. Spotify said the new tool could create an extra stream of income for artists and songwriters, in addition to what they already earn through royalties. The financial terms of the deal were unclear, and the companies did not reveal which artists would participate in the licensing deal. Universal Music is home to artists including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish. Spotify's shares were up 16% on Thursday, with revenue expected to grow at a "mid-teens" annual rate and gross profit margins between 35% and 40% through to 2030, according to the FT. "Solving hard problems for music is what Spotify does, and fan-made covers and remixes are next. What we're building is grounded in consent, credit and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part," said Spotify co-chief executive Alex Norström. Universal Music's chief executive Lucian Grainge said the deal seeks to "support human artistry" and "create additional revenue opportunities for artists and songwriters". "Building on our long track record of leading the industry through technology changes, and collaborating with Alex, Gustav, Daniel and the team at Spotify, this initiative is firmly artist-centric, rooted in responsible AI, and will drive growth for the entire ecosystem," he said. Spotify is looking for new ways to grow beyond the traditional music subscription and to adopt AI into its ecosystem. At the start of May, it announced a beta feature that lets AI agents save and play "personal podcasts", which will be a daily briefing, private to the user. Artificial intelligence is a pressing concern for the music industry. Artists and songwriters are concerned about copyright problems and the place of AI-generated music in the industry landscape. At the end of April, Spotify announced a new verification system to help users differentiate human artists and AI-generated content. The audio-streaming service said its "Verified by Spotify" badge - marked by a green checkmark - will begin appearing on artist profiles and in search results in the coming weeks. The badge means a music profile has been reviewed and meets the platform's standards for authenticity. "In the AI era, it's more important than ever to be able to trust the authenticity of the music you listen to," the company said.

Spotify CEO says putting AI-generated music on the app is good -- and not just for SPOT stock. Here's why

Subscribe to the Daily newsletter.Fast Company's trending stories delivered to you every day "I quit Spotify after many many years because of their attempts to integrate AI into music," one Reddit user responded. "At this rate, Spotify won't just be a streaming platform anymore," another quipped. Norström has defended the move as a "rewarding outcome for artists and songwriters" that will compensate musicians, arguing Spotify is offering a "controlled" alternative for musicians to make money, instead of having their work ripped off. Critics, however, are wary. "I think if you are going to have AI music, it's clearly better that you have AI music that is rooted in consent," composer Ed Newton-Rex, who campaigns to protect creators' copyrights, told The Guardian. "[However] the big question will be whether fans can share remixes they make for other people to listen to. If they can, I think you get into dangerous territory. These AI remixes will flood Spotify and drown out other songs, which will in turn put pressure on more musicians to sign up to the AI remix feature."

Spotify and UMG partner on AI-generated music remixes

Spotify announced a partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG) to enable fans to use generative AI to create song covers and remixes. The new tool will be a paid add-on for Spotify's Premium subscribers, with artists receiving a revenue share for the AI-generated music based on their work. Pricing and a launch date were not disclosed. The licensing agreement aligns with Spotify's previous collaborations with music groups, including Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, Merlin, and Believe, aimed at developing artist-first AI products. Spotify stated that the AI tools would be created through "upfront agreements," allowing artists and rightsholders to choose their participation and ensuring fair compensation. Spotify co-CEO Alex Norström emphasized the initiative's focus on consent, credit, and compensation for artists and songwriters. "Solving hard problems for music is what Spotify does, and fan-made covers and remixes are next," Norström said. UMG Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge noted that the development would help artists deepen relationships with fans and create new revenue opportunities. Specific UMG artists participating in the initiative have not yet been disclosed. Other companies in the AI music sector, such as Suno and Udio, have faced legal challenges regarding their music tools, leading to lawsuits from major labels. In November, Suno settled a $500 million lawsuit with Warner Music Group, while UMG reached a settlement with Udio. Suno continues to address copyright claims from UMG and Sony Music, while Udio is in negotiations with Sony. Recognizing consumer demand, Spotify sought a direct deal with music labels to facilitate this initiative. The announcement coincided with Spotify's Investor Day, where the company also unveiled plans for an AI-powered audiobook creation tool, AI features for podcasters, a desktop app for personal podcasts, and reserved concert tickets for top fans.

'What we're building is grounded in consent, credit, and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part': Planned Spotify AI tool can generate remixes and covers

Spotify plans to introduce a tool that will allow users to create AI-generated covers and remixes. My first instinct was to raise my hackles up, too, but it turns out there's a smidge more nuance to get into. Namely, the planned feature is pitched as a 'groundbreaking responsible AI tool.' How does a massive corporation plan to use AI 'responsibly'? Well, for a start, the whole venture is being facilitated by a "landmark recorded music and music publishing licensing agreement" between Spotify and Universal Music Group. That means that users will only be able to AI-ify "their favorite songs from participating artists and songwriters." Spotify tends to pay artists a pittance, but the platform is pitching the AI tool, which will launch as a paid add-on for Spotify Premium users, as an additional source of revenue for songwriters and artists. In short, the whole thing is an attempt to offer a generative AI tool that plays on the right side of music copyright law. Spotify co-CEO Alex Norström said, "What we're building is grounded in consent, credit, and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part." Not that the devil needs any more advocates, but if I was to indulge ol' Beelzebub, I would say something about remix culture being a pretty central part of all things media -- both offline and online. A generative remix tool on one of the biggest music platforms out there feels like a natural progression, and I definitely don't hate the attempt to avoid lifting songs without permission. However, after The Velvet Sundown debacle last year, I can't help but feel a little wary about whether this will actually improve anything for artists or fans in the long term. For one thing, unlike other music platforms such as Deezer, Spotify is still not great about labelling AI content. Introducing a generative AI tool could be seen as sanctioning AI music more broadly, potentially inviting more unmarked AI music onto the platform. This AI music might have nothing to do with the licensing agreement with Universal Music Group, and may be cobbled together from a plagiarised data set. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm also not hopeful.

Spotify adding derivative AI fan covers and remixes for an extra fee | Stuff

Spotify is launching AI generated covers and remixes that artists will be able to opt-into. Spotify has announced a partnership with record label Universal to enable fans to generate AI-powered covers and remixes of their favourite tracks via the music streaming service. The forthcoming paid add-on for Spotify Premium subscribers will require the opt-in consent of artists who will then be compensated when their music is tampered with by listeners. It's not exactly clear what these "fan-made covers" will entail. Whether users will be able to ask for a song in the style of another artist, or whether they'll be able to add their own voice to a song. The remixes part is pretty self explanatory. Spotify isn't explaining the specifics, just that the deal itself has been agreed with Universal Music Group. The new initiative "introduces a creation model where artists and songwriters can directly share in the value generated through AI-driven licensed covers and remixes on the Spotify platform," the company says in a blog post. "It will create an additional source of income for artists and songwriters, on top of what they already earn on Spotify." It's hard to imagine a lot of artists being enthusiastic about this. The media release, tellingly, doesn't offer an endorsement from a single one. However, many songwriters may feel the need to opt-in to help make ends meet. Perhaps if Spotify paid artists a good rate in the first place, they wouldn't feel the need to allow their life's work to be torn to shreds by an LLM? The statement from Spotify's co-CEO Alex Norstrom feels like pure gaslighting. The company writes: "Solving hard problems for music is what Spotify does, and fan-made covers and remixes are next. What we're building is grounded in consent, credit, and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part. Through each technological transformation, we have worked together with Sir Lucian and his team to evolve the music ecosystem into a richer, more beneficial experience for fans and a more rewarding outcome for artists and songwriters." Universal calls it an "AI-enabled superfan initiative designed to support human artistry."

Spotify-Universal Deal Suggests Labels Think AI Music's Future Is Letting You Play With Their Catalog

Inside Anderson .Paak's K-Pop Album: 'This is More Than a Soundtrack' It's becoming increasingly clear that the strategy for major labels when it comes to dealing with AI-generated music's rise is to embrace and monetize it, letting fans use carefully controlled versions of the technology to create variations on songs the labels control. In the process, they hope, they'll generate more royalties. The latest evidence is a just-announced high-profile new deal between the world's largest record company, Universal Music Group, and Spotify to "launch a new tool allowing fans to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs from participating artists and songwriters." The strategy, which would essentially turn artists' work into a kind of digital Play-Doh, first became clear late last year, when Universal and Warner Music each settled lawsuits with the AI service Udio and struck deals to create a subscription service with the same kind of song-morphing capabilities. The Spotify deal extends that template onto the most popular streaming platform, and as with the prior announcements, Universal suggested that artists will be able to decide whether to allow their songs to be part of it. A launch date for the tool has yet to be revealed, but it will be a "paid add-on for Spotify Premium subscribers," according to the announcement, with participating artists and songwriters sharing in the revenue. In a statement, Spotify Co-CEO Alex Norström said the product is grounded in "consent, credit, and compensation" for the artists and songwriters who take part. Universal chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge called the initiative "firmly artist-centric, rooted in responsible AI." Udio CEO Andrew Sanchez pointed out to Rolling Stone in 2025 that these deals may also yield valuable data. "Maybe I'm a country singer, but people are trying to use me to make hip-hop," Sanchez said. "That's amazing. Maybe I wanna lean into that." Michael Nash, Universal's chief digital officer, told Rolling Stone in 2025 that the company's AI goals were to "center the conversation on artists, defend their rights and interests, and from that foundation build the creative and commercial opportunities out." He cited research that a large percentage of music uploaded to social media has been, he said, "sped up, slowed down, mashed up, remixed" as evidence of the demand for the services the company is building. Artists who opt into these plans "will have an opportunity to connect with fans on a platform where you'll have enormous control over the parameters around that interaction, and then you will have significant economic participation," he said, "as opposed to the current world in which there's no control and there's very little economic participation."

Spotify strikes deal with Universal Music to let premium users create AI covers, remixes - The Economic Times

The companies did not disclose the financial ⁠terms of ⁠the deal or which artists will participate in the new feature in their joint announcement on Thursday. Universal Music is home to artists including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Drake and Billie Eilish.Spotify has struck a deal with Universal Music Group to let subscribers create AI-generated covers and remixes of songs, marking the first time the audio-streaming giant will allow users to produce AI content using its platform. Shares of the company rose around 16%. The companies did not disclose the financial ⁠terms of ⁠the deal or which artists will participate in the new feature in their joint announcement on Thursday. Universal Music is home to artists including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Drake and Billie Eilish. The move puts Spotify in more direct competition with startups such as Udio and Suno that allow AI-powered music creation. The new tool ⁠will create an additional source of income for artists and songwriters, on top of what they already earn on ⁠Spotify including through royalties, the companies said. "What we're building is grounded in consent, credit and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part," said Spotify Co-CEO Alex Norstrom. Major record labels have been seeking new licensing arrangements to safeguard their vast catalogs as AI-generated music grows in popularity and consumers increasingly struggle to tell it apart from human-composed songs. Last year, Udio signed deals with UMG and Warner Music Group to settle copyright cases, while Suno reached a settlement with WMG. But the ⁠two AI music companies face class action lawsuits from more than 1,800 independent artists, who allege the startups' actions "were an attack" on the music community's "most vulnerable and valuable members." Spotify has previously introduced several AI-powered music discovery features to boost user retention and engagement, including voice interaction for its personalized music tool AI DJ and the option to generate playlists using natural-language prompts.

Spotify Turns AI Fan Covers Into Artist Paychecks | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. The deal, announced Thursday (May 21) at Spotify's 2026 Investor Day, covers licensing agreements for recorded music and publishing rights, giving Spotify the legal foundation to launch a generative AI remix tool for participating UMG artists and songwriters. It will be a paid add-on for Spotify Premium subscribers. No launch date has been set. Spotify Co-CEO Gustav Söderström told CNBC the platform is "still firing on all cylinders" and described generative AI as a growth driver. Spotify has 761 million users and 293 million Premium subscribers across 184 markets. Co-CEO Alex Norström said in the release the framework is "grounded in consent, credit and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part. UMG Chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge called it "firmly artist-centric, rooted in responsible AI." The deal creates a new income layer for participating artists on top of existing Spotify royalties. UMG's roster includes Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Post Malone. Participation is opt-in. Financial terms were not disclosed. The groundwork for the deal stretches back to last fall, when Spotify announced it was building AI music products with all three major labels alongside independent licensing agency Merlin and music company Believe. UMG is the first rights holder to reach a licensing agreement. Spotify paid more than $11 billion to the music industry in 2025, up more than 10% year over year, with total all-time payouts now exceeding $70 billion. The commercial logic is straightforward. AI-generated covers using an artist's voice have existed largely outside any rights framework and without compensation to artists. Spotify is building a licensed version of that behavior and charging for access to it. Thursday's announcement comes as the volume of unlicensed AI music already on streaming platforms is growing. PYMNTS reported that Deezer received more than 60,000 fully AI-generated tracks daily, with synthetic content making up roughly 39% of all music delivered to the platform each day. Up to 85% of streams on AI-generated music were fraudulent in 2025, used to manipulate royalty payouts rather than reflect genuine listener demand. Spotify's position has been to avoid policing creative tools. PYMNTS reported that Söderström said at the company's February earnings call that the platform should not decide what tools artists use. But he acknowledged listener demand for transparency and said Spotify has been working with the industry to surface metadata about how music was created. The UMG deal is a different kind of response. Rather than labeling AI music after it arrives, Spotify is building a licensed channel for it from the start. The deal establishes a rights structure before the tool launches, rather than negotiating after the fact. Artists set the terms of participation. Labels retain rights control. Whether other major labels follow is the next question. Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group were part of the October 2025 intention-to-license announcement. Neither has announced a deal.

Spotify's Next Era? AI and Content Generation

Spotify is leaning further into AI as it holds to its promise of reaching 1 billion active users by 2030. At the company's investor day in New York Thursday, executives laid out the planned pathway for hitting that number, as well as $100 billion in annual revenue, with new features including the ability to create AI-generated personalized podcasts, user-generated covers and remixes using AI and more. Spotify also plans to continue creating more paid add-on services or subscriptions, alongside its audiobooks offering, which they say has been one of its most-engaged segments on the platform. As co-CEO Gustav Söderström laid out, in the beginning, the company's motto was access. Spotify then moved into personalization, with curated playlists and more. Next up is "generation," drawing on AI tools to help create content on the platform. "We're entering the era of generation, where the experience isn't just selected from a catalog. It's shaped by each of our users, in real time, around their taste, context, and intent. Today, there is no media player for both public and private content - or put differently - there is no media player for the generative era. We believe Spotify will become that," said Gustav Söderström, co-CEO of Spotify. The personalized podcasts and user-generated covers and remixes join existing personalization products on Spotify including AI DJ, which creates curated playlists for the user, and Prompted Playlists. Spotify also unveiled a desktop app which can create a audio daily briefing or a podcast based on the user's emails and schedule. The idea in leaning into AI and offering more personalized products is to help improve retention, conversion to paid membership and time spent on the platform, as Spotify gains a deeper understanding of the individual. AI can also be used to add in more content in the language of each market, and make it localised faster. As it stands, the company last reported 761 million global monthly active users, with 293 million of those as subscribers. Annual revenue was about $18.5 billion in 2025. Spotify highlighted potential future user growth in Brazil, India and The Philippines among other markets. Amid the AI talk, the company also announced that its Audiobooks segment is on track to reach $100 million in annualized recurring revenue from Audiobooks+ subscriptions this July. Paid users already have access to 15 free hours of audiobook content, with the add-on Audiobooks+ subscription giving them an additional 15 hours. In less than a year, more than one million users are already paying for audiobooks, according to Spotify. It has also seen some of the deepest continued engagement on Spotify, which is a metric the company is leaning into moving forward. "The number of times that you come back to us in a month, and the number of devices you use might be among the most important metrics that we monitor," Nördstrom said. On Thursday, the company also announced the creation of more add-on tiers for its audiobook offering, which offer more hours for a higher price. This comes as part of a plan to increase the amount of revenue generated by users that already subscribe. The company recently introduced fitness, via partnership with Peloton to stream videos on the platform. which executives said they believe has the "potential to become a meaningful vertical in its own right." Executives also said they are eyeing several more future verticals. Podcasting has also "made significant progress," according to CFO Christian Luiga, who described the segment's gross margin as "deeply negative" in 2021 and growing to 20 percent in 2026. He added that the company sees "a path to 40 percent" gross margin, which will be driven by both first and third-party content. With the additional add-ons and new features, there will be further price increases down the line, but executives noted that there has been little churn with the prior increases. "You can expect us to continue on this journey. But we always want the user to win," Nördstrom said of price increases. For the second and third quarter, the company said it will increase its spending in marketing and research and development as it adjusts to these new realities and may allocate capital to M&A, according to Luiga, while maintaining a "build-first strategy." But overall Spotify, which has previously gone through a number of cost-cutting measures, said it would be relying on greater efficiency through AI. "We're no longer scaling by increasing headcount, we're scaling by increasing the impact of the people that we already have," one executive said.

Spotify-UMG deal to let fans create licensed AI covers and remixes

"Solving hard problems for music is what Spotify does, and fan-made covers and remixes are next," and emphasized that the initiative is "grounded in consent, credit, and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part, " said Spotify Co-CEO Alex Norström Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) have announced new recorded music and publishing licensing agreements. These agreements will allow Spotify to launch a tool that enables fans to create covers and remixes of songs by participating artists and songwriters. Both companies describe the May 21, 2026, announcement as a turning point in the relationship between generative AI and the music industry. The new tool will launch as a paid add-on for Spotify Premium users, providing artists and songwriters with an additional income stream beyond their current earnings. Participation is opt-in, so only those who choose to join will have their catalogues available for fan remixing and reinterpretation. UMG Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge said the initiative uses AI to deepen fan relationships and create revenue opportunities for artists. The companies state that the framework is based on three pillars: consent, credit, and compensation. Part of a Broader Spotify-UMG Partnership: This deal builds on a multiyear agreement signed by the two companies in January 2025 and follows Spotify's October 2025 collaboration with all major labels, including Sony, Warner, Merlin, and Believe, to develop artist-first AI music products. The Spotify-UMG partnership has adapted through several technological shifts in the streaming era, from digital downloads to podcasting and now generative AI. The announcement highlights a broader industry shift from litigation against AI music startups to the adoption of licensed AI creation platforms. In October 2025, UMG settled its copyright lawsuit with Udio and announced a licensed AI music platform using authorised training data, artist opt-ins, attribution systems, and revenue sharing. This settlement indicates that major labels now view licensing frameworks and platform-controlled AI tools as more commercially viable than extended copyright disputes. The major labels were negotiating AI licensing agreements with companies such as Spotify, Suno, Udio, Stability AI, and ElevenLabs to establish compensation and attribution systems similar to YouTube's Content ID model. How the Disney-OpenAI Sora Deal Unravelled? The Spotify-UMG announcement comes amid challenges in the broader AI licensing sector. In December 2025, Disney and OpenAI reached what they billed as a landmark three-year agreement, making Disney the first major content licensing partner on Sora, OpenAI's short-form generative AI video platform. Under the deal, Sora would generate short, user-prompted social videos featuring over 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars. Disney also committed to a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI. However, the agreement did not fully deliver. On March 24, 2026, less than three months after the Disney deal was signed, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman informed staff that Sora would be shut down. The $1 billion Disney investment tied to Sora did not proceed. OpenAI has confirmed a two-stage shutdown: the Sora web and app experiences ended on April 26, 2026, and the Sora API will be discontinued on September 24, 2026. This decision aligns with a broader strategic shift, as OpenAI reallocates computing resources to coding tools and enterprise clients. Why this matters: The Sora episode highlights a key lesson for the Spotify-UMG deal: while the goal of developing licensed, fan-facing AI creative tools is genuine, the business model must be sustainable. Spotify's decision to offer this as a paid Premium add-on, with direct revenue to artists, demonstrates a commitment to financial sustainability from the start rather than as an afterthought.

Spotify strikes deal with Universal Music to let premium users create AI covers, remixes

Spotify has struck a deal with Universal Music Group to let subscriber to create AI generated covers and remixes of songs, marking the first time the audio-streaming giant will allow users to produce AI content using its platform. Shares of the company rose around 16 per cent. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal or which artists will participate in the new feature in their joint announcement on Thursday. Universal Music is home to artists including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Drake and Billie Eilish. The move puts Spotify in more direct competition with startups such as Udio and Suno that allow AI-powered music creation. The new tool will create an additional source of income for artists and songwriters, on top of what they already earn on Spotify including through royalties, the companies said. "What we're building is grounded in consent, credit and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part," said Spotify Co-CEO Alex Norström. Major record labels have been seeking new licensing arrangements to safeguard their vast catalogs as AI-generated music grows in popularity and consumers increasingly struggle to tell it apart from human-composed songs. Last year, Udio signed deals with UMG and Warner Music Group to settle copyright cases, while Suno reached a settlement with WMG. But the two AI music companies face class action lawsuits from more than 1,800 independent artists, who allege the startups' actions "were an attack" on the music community's "most vulnerable and valuable members." Spotify has previously introduced several AI-powered music discovery features to boost user retention and engagement, including voice interaction for its personalized music tool AI DJ and the option to generate playlists using natural-language prompts.

Spotify leverages musical AI as a monetization engine with Universal

Following a challenging year on the markets, Spotify shares surged 13% on Wall Street after unveiling a generative AI partnership with Universal Music Group, alongside long-term financial targets that resonated well with investors. Despite this sharp rebound, the stock remains approximately 37% below its June 2025 record high, underscoring the ongoing need to demonstrate the sustainability of its growth and profitability. With this new tool, set to launch as a paid add-on to the Premium subscription, Spotify aims to enable users to create covers and remixes using the catalogs of participating artists and songwriters. The framework ensures consent, credit, and compensation for rights holders at a time when the music industry is seeking tighter control over how AI models utilize their intellectual property. The agreement with Universal, whose roster includes the likes of Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, lends significant weight to the initiative as the sector grapples with the rise of AI music generation platforms. For Spotify, the objective is to pivot a legal and creative risk into a new revenue stream, while cementing its role as the primary intermediary between fans, artists and labels. Management also noted that Spotify paid out over $11bn to the music industry in 2025, a year-on-year increase of more than 10%, bringing total lifetime payouts to over $70bn. During its investor day, the group further indicated it is targeting average annual revenue growth in the mid-teens and a gross margin of 35% to 40% by 2030.

Spotify Technology Shares Up Amid New AI Tool For Remixing Songs

Spotify Technology shares climbed after the company said it plans to roll out an artificial intelligence tool allowing users to make covers and remixes of songs from Universal Music Group's artists. Shares of the music streaming company climbed 15% Thursday to $497.47. The company's shares are still down 15% year to date. The new tool is part of an expanded partnership between the streaming company and the record label, which represents a host of artists, from Taylor Swift to Kendrick Lamar. The tool will be a paid add-on for Spotify Premium users, the company said. The company also said Thursday that it would reserve two concert tickets for some artists' top fans to buy tickets before the general sale.