Spotify Deletes Tens of Thousands of AI-Generated Songs

Using AI to generate songs isn't exactly new to the music industry, but it's been making headlines lately as the AI "craze" has exploded. Boomy's songs were removed because Spotify suspected the company of "synthetic streaming," which involves using bots to impersonate humans to boost the streaming and audience numbers of songs.

Boomy lets users choose from a variety of styles or descriptions to create songs with AI, such as lo-fi or rap. Users can mix their own music or record their own voice to add to the song. The company even offers a text-to-image feature that lets users create cover art with AI.

Through Boomy, users can release their songs and albums on the streaming platform. However, Boomy notes that they may alter users' songs to comply with the service's guidelines. The company says it owns the copyright to all songs created with Boomy, although users still receive 80% of the royalties. In addition, the company still allows users to use their songs for most commercial and non-commercial purposes, such as on TikTok or in podcasts.

Despite only being around for two years, Boomy claims its users have created over 14 million songs, accounting for a total of about 13.83% of “the world’s recorded songs.”

According to a report from the Financial Times , Spotify has removed about 7% of the songs uploaded by Boomy, estimated to be in the tens of thousands. Spotify says it is working to address the issue of “artificial streaming.”

Michael Nash - Chief Digital Officer of Universal Music (UMG) shared that the company would welcome it if its partners could carefully monitor music streaming platforms.

UMG CEO Lucian Grainge told investors that if generative AI grows unchecked, platforms will be flooded with copyright-infringing content.

In April, UMG emailed streaming services, including Spotify, asking them to block AI services from accessing music catalogs for AI training.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says he's never seen anything as surprising as the speed at which AI technology is advancing.

Boomy continues to release new music on Spotify, and the two sides are in talks to restore the songs that were removed. Boomy said it is firmly against any form of manipulation or artificial streaming and will work with industry partners to address the issue.

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