Tidal is the latest music-streaming service to set out its policies around AI-generated music, and it’s going further than many of its peers in one respect: it won’t be paying royalties out for these tracks.
“Tidal will accept AI-generated music. Artists should have the freedom to create with AI tools, and listeners should have the autonomy to choose the type of content they consume,” explains the policy, which was published yesterday (29 June).
However, any tracks that Tidal has detected as “100% AI-generated” will be tagged as such from mid-July.
“As AI-detection methods become more reliable, we will expand this tag to content that is substantially AI-generated,” explained Tidal. “But the responsibility to identify and tag AI-generated content should not rest with Tidal alone. We expect – and will begin to enforce – that content distributors identify AI-generated content before it reaches our platform.”
Tidal is also going to be blocking and removing any AI tracks “associated with fraudulent activity” – a definition that here includes pretending to be by established human artists, as well as “high-volume uploads or unusual streaming activity”.
This broadly matches the policies of rivals, but it’s the section on monetisation where Tidal is taking a harder line.
“Starting today, AI-generated music will not be monetizable,” announced the company, while acknowledging “the ongoing debate regarding whether certain AI-generated music (e.g. AI-generated music developed from fairly and properly licensed models) should be entitled to earn royalties”.
That suggests potential to alter the policy in the future, but for now the approach is clear: “Tidal’s priority is ensuring royalties go to original works directly produced, written, and performed by people. We will therefore not knowingly attribute royalties to music we identify as wholly AI-generated.”
As with rivals, the definition of “wholly AI-generated” music can get blurry: for example when a human has written all the lyrics, and done some form of editing to whatever the AI model they’re using has output.
Even so, the policy itself is clear, and part of a welcome trend for streaming services to set out their approaches publicly on AI music – while recognising that the rapid evolution of this technology may require changes in the future.
