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Speaker 1: We have some music news. This is interesting.

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Speaker 2: So we've talked about Spotify before. This is interesting to

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me for a couple of reasons, but you had sent

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me this. This is from the Hollywood Reporter. Spotify removes

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seventy five million spammy in quotes, spammy songs, cracks down

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on AI use by bad actors. The music streaming giant

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is looking to modernize, I'm sorry, moderate rather AI generated

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music as it floods its platform. I can see how

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that would be a problem. By the way, before we

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get into the story in a little bit of depth.

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Here again, this is from the Hollywood Reporter. This just

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went up two days ago, so this is pretty fresh.

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But not only not only is this obviously, I mean,

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I can see why this would be a problem, right.

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AI makes it so easy, like the Puno app, for example,

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we've used it on the show. You can create music,

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you know, music that sounds like it was created by

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real people, really realistic music.

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Speaker 3: Because they're sailing it from real people, but not realistically.

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Speaker 1: But not only that, so obviously this would be a problem.

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Speaker 2: Right. If it's that easy to create it, it's easy

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to you know, submit it to Spotify or any other

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streaming platform, right, and then and then they will use it.

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But the other thing that's interesting to me, and this

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came up a few years ago Spotify because we had

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talked about this on the show. This was yeah, this

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was at least two or three years ago. I think

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there was a story about how Spotify was having to

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go through and remove a lot of lower quality, you know,

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low quality in terms of production value, like stuff that

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sounded like demos, for example, not actually fully produced mixed

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and mastered music because people were uploading so much music

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to Spotify and a lot of it wasn't even necessarily

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you know, just just the quality like anything that you

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hear on Spotify should it should at minimum be the

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same quality that you might hear on the radio or

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that you might buy in a store, right, right. So

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that was becoming a problem. So Spotify was having to

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go through and remove a lot of that. And what

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was interesting about that is, you know, people don't necessarily

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realize these streaming services. It's not like, think of how

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much music gets uploaded to these streaming services every day

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across the world. But it's not as though they have

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unlimited storage. True, you know, there there is I mean,

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you know, they can always make more right. But it's

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not as simple as like just you can just upload

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millions and millions of songs all at once and it's

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just fine. It's not so they have to as there.

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And look, I'm not please. I'm not expressing any sympathy

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for Spotify because I you know, artists can plain often

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and I'll always advocate on the side of artists that

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Spotify pays out painfully low amounts of you know, for

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the music that you know, pays low amounts of these

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artists for making their music available to stream. But it's

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it's but but these are problems, you know, it's not

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a perfect business model in the sense that there are

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pro problems with you know, in terms of storage and

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and now they're having to go through and deal with

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the onslaught of AI and release all these and remove

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rather all these spammy songs that are produced produced by

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AI and and not only that, but there's also going

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to be the effect of some people and I remember

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we talked about this on the show once before. Some

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people are going to get caught in that net inevitably

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because of technology I'm sure is not perfect. Some people

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are going to get caught in that net who are

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not in fact, uh, you know these AI artists like

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what was her name, Zani m One we talked about

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last week or signed So you can't take that or

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that or that band. Uh.

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Speaker 1: I forget the name of the band now, but we

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played something.

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Speaker 3: Of theirs Interfury.

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Speaker 2: No Interfury is the one that you found or that

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guy found you. But there was another band we talked

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about on the show who uh is charting?

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Speaker 1: Who?

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Speaker 2: People thought? Well people people figured out they're not a

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real band. But anyway, I forget who the who it

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is now, but all their songs are like about war,

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like very pro war but very strange.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, so these are problems.

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Speaker 2: But there's going to be some artists who the software

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or whatever they're doing, however they're applying this because you

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can't have a human being sitting there doing all this, right,

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that software is going to detect artists who aren't necessarily

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AI generated, but maybe have AI elements in their you

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know AI. I mean you use AI in a recording

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studio anyway, you can't avoid it, right, But let's look

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at this, so it says here again, this is from

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the Hollywood Reporter. Spotify is set to strengthen AI protections

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for artists and music producers with a series of measures

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including improved enforcement of impersonation violations, a new spam filtering system,

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and AI disclosures for music and industry standard credits. The

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music streaming Giant made the announcement in a for the

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record post on its website Thursday, noting that it had

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removed seventy five million spamy tracks began quote the pace

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of recent advances in generative generative AI technology has felt

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quick and at times unsettling, especially for creatives. At its best,

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AI is unlocking incredible new ways for artists to great

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music and for listeners to discover it. At its worst,

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AI can be used by bad actors and consent farm

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and content farms to confuse or deceive listeners, push slop

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into the ecosystem, and interfere with authentic artists working to

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build their careers. That kind of harmful AI content degrades

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the user experience for listeners and often attempts to divert royalties.

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Speaker 1: To bad actors.

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Speaker 2: UH the future again, this is from the statement the

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future of music industry. Of the music industry is being written,

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and we believe the aggressive that aggressively protecting against the

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worst parts of gen AI is essential to enabling its

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potential for artists and producers. We envision a future where

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artists and producers are in control of how or if

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they incorporate AI into their creative processes. As always, we

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leave those creative decisions to artists themselves, while continuing our

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work to protect them against spam, impersonation, and deception, and

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providing listeners with greater transparency about the music they hear unquote.

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Regarding specifics on the issue of impersonation, Spotify has committed

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itself to stronger rules and better enforcement.

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Speaker 1: Quote.

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Speaker 2: We've introduced a new impersonation policy that clarifies how we

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handle claims about AI, voice clones and other forms of

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unauthorized vocal impersonation, giving artists stronger protections and clearer recourse.

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Vocal impersonation is only allowed in music on Spotify when

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the impersonated artist has authorized its usage.

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Speaker 1: Unquote.

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Speaker 2: By the way, that is, there's more to this article,

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but that's one of the points where you know, I

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talked about people getting caught in the net again, I'm

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not I'm not criticizing Spotify for doing this. I think

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this is probably a really good thing, but it's not

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going to be perfect. What if you have an artist

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who just sounds like they just have a voice similar

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to another artist. You know, a lot of artists sound similar.

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Speaker 3: And but there's I bet there's things computers can pick

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up that's different about the may sound similar to the

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human ear.

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Speaker 1: But maybe this is.

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Speaker 2: Maybe maybe maybe, But but what if I just I

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can I can see there're being mistakes here. It's not

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going to be perfect. And what if an artist here's

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someone who they think sounds like them and they make

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a complaint, they make a claim, and then it turns

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out that the artist who sounds like them is a

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real person with a real voice who happens to sound

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like them. So there's going to be problems with this.

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I mean, ask anybody who's dealt with YouTube, you know,

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getting getting all kinds of you know, the stuff YouTube

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will put you through if you're a content creator. And

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we won't get in all of that that because that's

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a whole other conversation, but it's related in the sense that,

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you know, sometimes people get caught in a net and

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it's it's it's not a good uh, I not a

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good thing to have happened to you.

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Speaker 3: So it's it's going to be kind of a difficult

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thing to navigate.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, it says here.

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Speaker 2: Additionally, Spotify said it was ramping up quote investments to

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protect against another impersonation tactic where uploaders fraudulently deliver music

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AI generated or otherwise to another artist profile across streaming services. Uh,

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testing new prevention tactics with leading artists distributors to equip

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them to better stop these attacks. As at the source unquote. Yeah,

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so if you if you make a song that sounds

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like Taylor Swift and then you try to upload it

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as Taylor Swift's.

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Speaker 1: Say, this is a new Taylor Swift.

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Speaker 3: Remember, Yeah, people do slimy stuff like that.

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Speaker 2: Oh remember we talked about it on the show Selene

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Deon where there was this AI generated Celene Dion song

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that fooled a lot of people and it was being

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Uh it was pretty successful and I think it even

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charted on some charts somewhere.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, but it was.

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Speaker 2: It was on YouTube and people thought it was really

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her and it wasn't horrible. U. Yeah, but uh, but

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but there's also so sometimes if artists have similar names,

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I don't remember who it was. It was somebody we

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had on the show who they They had tried to

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upload their music to Spotify, but their name was somewhat

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similar to someone else's name. It wasn't the same name,

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but it was somewhat similar, and it and it kept it. Yeah,

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it was causing all kinds of problems. I don't remember

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the details, but it also says here again. This is

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from the Hollywood Reporter. Spotify hopes its new spam filtering

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measures will cut down on issues such as mass uploads, duplicates,

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SEO hacks, artificially artificially short track abuse, and other forms

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of slop that have all become easier and more prevalent

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due to AI tools. The new spam filter quote will

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identify uploaders and tracks engaging in these tactics, tag them,

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and stop recommending them unquote. The company says it will

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roll out a new music spam filter over the coming

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months and will be careful not to penalize the wrong uploaders.

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The third measure, Oh yeah, yeah, it won't be perfect.

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The third measure Spotify has introduced is AI disclosure for

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music with industry standard credits.

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Speaker 1: This is going to be messy with.

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Speaker 2: AI increasingly being used in the music industry. The company

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wants to increase transparency of its use. Quote, we know

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the use of AI tools is increasingly a spectrum, not

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a binary, where artists and producers may choose to use

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AI to help with some parts of their productions and

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not others. The industry needs a nuanced approach to AI transparency,

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not forced to classify every song as either is AI

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or not AI. That's that's going to get very, very messy.

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That's going to be I want to know. That's going

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to be hard though.

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Speaker 3: But when you have breck now we have record label

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signing AI artists, well, yeah, how does that work?

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Speaker 1: Well, that's but that's not messy. That's obvious.

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Speaker 2: So it's easy to be transparent about that. But if

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you're especially if you're creating any type of electronic music

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in the studio or or at home on your on

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your laptop, you know, and then how is this that's

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going to be tricky.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how this is going to work.

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Speaker 2: Spotify says it will help develop and support new industry

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standard for AI disclosures in music credits that are being

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developed through the Digital Data Exchange, the International Standard Setting

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Organization the AI disclosure information will be displayed.

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Speaker 1: Across the Spotify app.

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Speaker 2: Spotify's new AI crackdown comes despite the company embracing AI

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and other aspects of its business. In February, Spotify said

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it will accept more AI narrated audio books on its

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platform through a partnership with eleven Labs. Still, the new

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AI measures will be welcomed by the major labels and

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fans after a number of recent news reports of undeclared

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AI artists racking up thousands of streams on Spotify. In July,

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The Guardian, Oh, this is the band I was trying

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to think of. I couldn't remember the name. In July,

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The Guardian reported the band The Velvet sun Down released

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two albums and accrued over one million streams on Spotify

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before it was revealed that the band and its music

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were AI generated. A Universal Music Group spokesperson told the

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harl Of Hollywood reporter quote, we welcome Spotify's new AI

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protections as important steps toward toward consistent forward. I'm sorry,

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steps forward consistent with our longstanding artist centric principles. We

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believe AI presents enormous opportunities for both artists and fans,

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which is why platforms, distributors, and aggregators must adopt measures

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to protect the health of the music ecosystem in order

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for these opportunities to flourish. These measures include content filtering,

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checks for infringement across streaming and social platforms, penalty systems

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for repeat infringers, chain of custodies, custody certification, and name

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and likeness verification. The adoption of these measures would inable

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artists to reach more fans, have more economic creative opportunities,

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and dramatically diminish the sea of noise and irrelevant content

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that threatens to drown out artists' voices unquote. All right,

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So that is that's what's going on at Spotify. And

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again Spotify is nobody's favorite company again because of the

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way they pay or don't pay artists. But but I

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think this is a good thing that they're doing.

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Speaker 1: But we'll see there's going to be some pitfalls with it.