Spotify deletes thousands of AI-generated songs: report

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Spotify has reportedly deleted tens of thousands of songs created by AI music startup Boomy as artificial intelligence (AI) technology takes center stage as the streaming industry’s biggest threat.

Spotify, the largest audio streaming service globally, deleted 7% of the tracks uploaded by the California-based Boomy. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Spotify suspected artificial streams from online bots posing as humans.

In recent years, AI has been rapidly integrated into several industries successfully. However, AI is becoming one of the greatest threats in the music and streaming industries. From artificial streams to copyright infringement, the industry has yet to crack the AI code.

Last month, Universal Music Group (NASDAQ: UMGNF), the world’s largest music conglomerate, warned Spotify and Apple Music to ban AI-generated music. The company claimed that AI services were scraping melodies and lyrics from artists signed to them.

Universal praised Spotify’s move to delete the Boomy songs.

“We are always encouraged when we see our partners exercise vigilance around the monitoring or activity on their platforms,” commented Michael Nash, the company’s chief digital officer.

For now, the focus is on purging the streaming industry of fake streams, which have been made easier and cheaper by AI.

“Artificial streaming is a longstanding, industry-wide issue that Spotify is working to stamp out across our service,” Spotify said in a statement as it confirmed it had ejected some music from Boomy.

Boomy praised the move, saying it’s categorically against fake streams.

Can Bitcoin save the music industry in the AI era?

Artificial streaming is just the tip of the iceberg of challenges facing the streaming industry today. For years, artists have decried the stranglehold streaming platform have on the sector. Even ChatGPT believes that streaming services are ripping artists off.

Blockchain technology could solve some of the industry’s biggest challenges. The Bitcoin SV (BSV) ecosystem already has several startups leveraging the Bitcoin blockchain to change the fortunes of content creators.

Soundoshi allows fans to stream music directly from their favorite artists and pay for it in real time. The startup has also introduced BSV-based audio NFTs that, according to co-founder Michal Scislowski are the “digital, transferrable, sellable” version of compact discs.

Jamify offers artists a platform to “run their own direct membership club,” tokenizing audio content and using it like a pass to other services.

With Rare Generation and Streamable FM, SmartLedger offers artists a platform to publish their content on the BSV blockchain and increase their revenue stream by up to 10 times compared to traditional platforms like Spotify.

“With its unbounded block size, as well as smart contract and on-chain scripting language, Bitcoin SV is the only option for creating protocols for the music industry to adopt for long-term stability and scalability,” SmartLedger sums it up.

In order for artificial intelligence (AI) to work right within the law and thrive in the face of growing challenges, it needs to integrate an enterprise blockchain system that ensures data input quality and ownership—allowing it to keep data safe while also guaranteeing the immutability of data. Check out CoinGeek’s coverage on this emerging tech to learn more why Enterprise blockchain will be the backbone of AI.

Watch: Audio NFTs—that’s the future of music streaming, Soundoshi’s Michal Scislowski says