Spotify removes 50 million AI spam tracks
Spotify has removed more than 50 million tracks identified as spam or low-quality from its recommendations over the past year, as the streaming platform steps up efforts to protect artists and listeners from unwanted AI-generated music, Qazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
The company announced the figures on October 20, marking one year since it outlined plans to tackle spam, impersonation and deception linked to AI.
The removals are separate from more than 75 million spam tracks that Spotify has taken off its platform entirely for serious or repeated violations of its rules.
Over the past 6 months, Spotify has updated its recommendation system to reduce the visibility of spam and low-quality content and promote music by human artists. The company said it had seen a marked decline in listener complaints about such tracks appearing in recommendations.
To identify unwanted content, Spotify combines listener feedback, engagement data, upload patterns, metadata and information from third-party AI detection tools. It also monitors tactics such as mass uploads, duplicate tracks, misleading search optimization and artificially short songs.
New tools
Spotify has also introduced several measures to improve transparency and give artists greater control over their music.
Since April, artists have been able to submit AI Credits that disclose which parts of a song, including instruments and creative roles, involved AI. The company said artists now submit tens of thousands of these credits daily.
More than 300,000 artists have received Spotify's verification badge. They account for more than 99% of the artists listeners search for on the platform, and more than 70% are independent musicians.
The platform has also labeled thousands of AI Personas, whose identities are generated by AI. By default, these profiles are excluded from editorial and algorithmic recommendations unless listeners follow them, for example.
Another tool, Artist Profile Protection, allows participating artists to review releases that list them as performers before those tracks appear on their profiles. Spotify plans to make the tool available to all artists by the end of 2026.
Spotify also pointed to its royalty eligibility rules, which require tracks to reach at least 1,000 streams within a specified period to qualify for recorded music royalties. Tracks showing strong indicators of AI generation are 10 times more likely than other tracks to fall below this threshold, according to the company.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that the Spotify app went down for US users.