However, the Swedish music trade body has excluded the song from the official chart after learning it was AI-generated.
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“Jacub’s track has been excluded from Sweden’s official chart, Sverigetopplistan, which is compiled by IFPI Sweden. While the song appears on Spotify’s own charts, it does not qualify for inclusion on the official chart under the current rules,” said an IFPI Sweden spokesperson.
Ludvig Werber, IFPI Sweden’s chief executive, said: “Our rule is that if it is a song that is mainly AI-generated, it does not have the right to be on the top list.”
[…]
IFPI Sweden acted after an investigative journalist, Emanuel Karlsten, revealed the song was registered to a Danish music publisher called Stellar and that two of the credited rights holders worked in the company’s AI department.
“What emerges is a picture of a music publisher that wants to experiment with new music and new kinds of artists. Who likes to push the limits of the audience’s tolerance threshold for artificial music and artificial artists,” wrote Karlsten.
In a statement, Stellar said: “The artist Jacub’s voice and parts of the music are generated with the help of AI as a tool in our creative process.”
[…]
Spotify does not require music to be labelled as AI-generated, but has been cracking down on AI-made spam tracks as every play more than 30 seconds long generates a royalty for the scammer behind it – and dilutes payments to legitimate artists.
Jacub is not the first AI artist to score a hit with audiences. A “band” called the Velvet Sundown amassed more than 1m streams on Spotify last year before it emerged the group was AI-generated, including its promotional images and backstory as well as the music. Its most popular song has now accumulated 4m streams on the platform.
In other news, they have banned the use of synthesisers, DJs and autotune from the IFPI charts as well. Oh no, they didn’t. It will just take them a few decades to catch up again.
Robin Edgar
Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft
