Music streaming service Tidal announced on June 29, 2026 a new AI policy under which it will not pay royalties on tracks it identifies as made entirely by generative AI. Rather than banning AI songs from the platform, it will only stop monetizing them.
June 29, 2026 · Tidal
Tidal Cuts Royalties on Fully AI-Generated Songs — But Keeps Them, With a Badge
Effective the same day, music made wholly by generative AI with little or no human input earns no royalties. Rather than ban it, Tidal keeps distributing such tracks and labels them "AI" for listeners.
$0
Royalties on tracks identified as 100% AI-generated
Jul 15
"AI" badge begins; impersonation & abuse auto-removed
44%
Of daily new uploads industrywide are AI-generated
How streaming platforms handle AI music
Tidal
Stops royalties on fully AI tracks + adds "AI" badge
Spotify
Labels AI music + anti-spam measures
Deezer
Excludes from recs/playlists + supplies AI detection
Apple Music
Transparency tagging
Bandcamp
Bans AI-generated music outright
A spectrum from outright bans (Bandcamp) to Tidal's middle path — demonetize & tag rather than remove.
Support
Protects human creators and stops AI tracks from draining the shared royalty pool — concentrating pay on "organic creativity."
Concern
Detection is imperfect — false positives/negatives, and hybrid works edited by humans blur the "substantially AI-generated" line.
A "living document," updated as the technology evolves.
Detection runs on a best-efforts basis with prior declarations from distributors
No figures disclosed on AI-track share or detection accuracy
Uploaded tracks are not used to train AI
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