Tidal Bans Royalties on AI-Generated Songs Starting
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- Tidal will require artists to label music wholly or substantially created with AI and deny royalties to those tracks under a policy effective July 15, while also banning AI-generated music tied to "fraudulent activity" such as impersonating established artists
- Tidal's independent artist franchise Tidal Upload is covered by the same rules, and the service will start enforcement with wholly AI-generated songs before expanding to "substantially" AI-generated songs "as AI-detection methods become more reliable"
- Spotify and Apple Music take a different approach, leaving AI labelling to artists and distributors; Apple told partners in March that AI music accounted for less than 1% of weekly plays and that it uses internal detection tools
- Spotify has explicitly said royalties are paid equally "regardless of the tools used to make it," making Tidal the outlier among major streamers in financially penalizing AI-only songs
- Robert Andersen, principal designer at Tidal developer Block, wrote on X that Tidal receives "an overwhelming amount of AI-generated music from 3rd party distributors" and that the platform's standards needed to evolve
- Tidal acknowledged the unresolved industry debate over officially licensed work used in AI-generated music, saying "this debate will continue as the technology advances and rightsholders and AI music platforms develop licensing models"
Why it matters: Tidal becomes the first major streamer to financially penalize wholly AI-made tracks rather than just label them — Spotify still pays royalties equally regardless of how a song was made. The July 15 rollout hinges on detection tools that aren't reliable yet, so only blatant AI submissions get the royalty cut, leaving the broader scope waiting.
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