TIDAL announced yesterday that starting on July 15, fully AI-generated music on the platform will no longer earn royalties. The company will tag those tracks with an “AI” badge, remove anything that impersonates an artist, and block 100% AI material from direct-to-fan sales. TIDAL EVP and editor-in-chief Tony Gervino said, “Many have told us they do not want to be exposed to (or prompted to listen to) wholly AI-generated music.”
TIDAL has not said how many AI tracks earn meaningful revenue on its service. Deezer’s 44% figure measures daily uploads, not listening; Deezer says AI tracks account for only 1% to 3% of total streams. Upload volume creates a moderation problem. Stream volume creates royalty dilution. They are related, but not the same.
The 100% threshold invites arbitrage. Add a human vocal, guitar line, or producer credit and the track becomes a hybrid. Then, the platform has to police metadata, distribution patterns, account networks, and listening behavior. In other words: the same anti-fraud stack it already uses against bots, with a new audio problem bolted on.
TIDAL can move first because its risk is smaller. Spotify cannot solve this with a “Made with AI” badge. For Spotify and the major labels, AI music becomes a contract fight: labeling duties, distributor warranties, audit rights, payout exclusions, and who pays when the metadata lies.
AI-generated music costs almost nothing to make and upload, so it’s going to be very hard for platforms to make this uneconomical for the music prompters.
Every company needs a Claw strategy. Do you have one?
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it. This work was created with the assistance of various generative AI models.