21.10.2026 03:00
Spotify announced that this year it removed more than 50 million tracks that it classified as AI-generated and low-quality content or spam from its recommendation system. More than 75 million spam tracks that seriously or repeatedly violated the rules were completely removed from the platform. The company reported that updates over the last 6 months have made more room for real artists' music.
Spotify reported that this year it removed more than 50 million tracks generated by artificial intelligence and classified as "low-quality content and spam" from its recommended lists.
In a written statement from Spotify, it was stated that, as part of efforts to protect artists and listeners from deceptive content in the age of artificial intelligence, more than 50 million tracks generated by artificial intelligence this year and classified as "low-quality content and spam" were removed from the recommendation system.
75 MILLION TRACKS COMPLETELY DELETED
The statement noted that more than 75 million spam tracks were also completely removed from the platform on the grounds that they seriously or repeatedly violated the platform's rules.
In the statement, which conveyed that tracks that listeners skipped, did not listen to, or stated they did not want to hear were examined and that a significant portion of them were identified as low-quality AI content or spam, it was expressed that updates made to the recommendation system in the last 6 months reduced such content and gave more space to music produced by real artists.
The statement said that Spotify evaluates together listener engagement and feedback, upload habits, metadata, and information obtained from third-party AI detection tools when detecting low-quality AI content and spam.
NEW LABELS FOR ARTISTS
The statement reported that various tools have also been introduced over the past year to protect artists and enable listeners to learn more about the content they listen to.
In this context, it was conveyed that the "AI Credits" feature, through which artists can specify in which roles and on which instruments artificial intelligence was used, was launched in April, and that artists send tens of thousands of credit details every day.
It was stated that more than 300,000 artists have been verified on Spotify, that these artists represent more than 99 percent of the names listeners search for on the platform, and that more than 70 percent of those verified consist of independent artists.
It was noted that "AI Persona" labels, which mark artist identities considered to have been created by artificial intelligence, have also been used on thousands of profiles, and that except for exceptions such as these profiles being followed by listeners, they are excluded by default from editorial and algorithmic recommendations.
1,000-PLAY THRESHOLD PROTECTS
The statement also expressed that the threshold applied since 2024, which requires a track to reach at least 1,000 plays in order to earn royalty revenue, plays an important role in protecting human artists against the wave of content generated by artificial intelligence.