- Spotify isn’t planning to completely ban AI-generated content, CEO Daniel Ek told the BBC.
- Ek told the outlet there were good and bad uses for the technology.
- He said the use of AI in the music industry would likely be debated for years.
Spotify won’t ban all AI-generated music, its CEO Daniel Ek said.
During an interview with BBC News, Ek said that although the tech had some valid use cases — such as auto-tune — it shouldn’t be used to impersonate an artist’s voice.
Ek told the outlet there was a debatable middle ground where AI-generated music was influenced by, but did not mimic, an existing artist. The Spotify boss added that the use of AI in the music industry would likely be debated for years.
Earlier this year, the streaming giant removed a viral AI-generated song that mimicked the voices of Drake and The Weeknd.
The song, called “Heart on My Sleeve,” was posted by an unidentified TikToker and streamed millions of times before being removed by Spotify. Apple Music and YouTube also removed it.
Several artists have criticized this type of AI music.
During an appearance on the “Full Send” podcast, Ice Cube said he would sue “the people and the platform” who made and distributed AI-generated music in his style.
Ek has spoken about some of the concerns around AI-generated content before. During Spotify’s first-quarter earnings call in April, he called the concerns “legitimate.”
He added, “I think the AI pushback from the copyright industry or labels and media companies, and it’s really around really important topics and issues like name and likeness, what is an actual copyright, who owns the right to something where you upload something and claim it to be Drake, it’s really not and so on. Those are legitimate concerns.”
Representatives for Spotify did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, made outside normal working hours.
