- Spotify has announced a new music authentication system called Artist Profile Protection
- It allows artists to approve or reject music releases before they appear on their profile
- The new system aims to prevent fraudulent streams and AI impersonation
Spotify has had its fair share of scrutiny from loyal yet frustrated subscribers fed up with AI-generated music plaguing Discover Weekly and Release Radar – and now the music streaming platform is taking its first big step in conquering this with a ‘first-of-its-kind solution’.
Launching in beta today (March 24), Spotify has announced Artist Profile Protection, a new opt-in system that puts artists in direct control of what new music appears under their name and profile. Essentially, it’s an approval stage that allows artists to review eligible music releases before they’re uploaded to Spotify, protecting them from AI impersonation and ensuring listeners are streaming legitimate music.
“Music has landed on the wrong artist pages across streaming services, and the rise of AI-produced tracks has made the problem worse,” Spotify said in its announcement. “That’s not the experience we want artists to have on Spotify, which is why we’ve made protecting artist identity a top priority for 2026”.
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Although Spotify has encouraged subscribers and artists to use its reporting resources to flag AI-generated music, this is the first time the company has given the artist an active role in preventing AI fraud as well as avoiding common mix-ups in the publishing process. It follows Apple Music’s ‘Transparency Tags’ announcement, a system that leaves the responsibility of revealing AI music to labels and distributors, which doesn’t necessarily guarantee 100% transparency. In the case of Spotify, it works a little differently.
How artist profile protection works
If a musician enables artist profile protection in the Spotify For Artists settings (artist team admins and editors have the ability to manage this), they will receive an email notification when music is submitted to Spotify in their name. This is where they can review music and choose whether to approve or reject its release.
If an artist approves, it will be uploaded as normal, contributing to artist statistics and listener recommendations. If it’s rejected or no action is taken, it won’t appear on your profile, but it can still go live on platforms other than Spotify. With that in mind, Spotify recommends notifying the distributor. But there is a way for artists to circumvent this process.
Once the feature is enabled, artists will be given what Spotify calls an ‘artist key’, which is essentially a unique code that musicians can share with trusted music distributors. So when music is submitted to Spotify with the artist key attached, the release will automatically be approved. The company goes into detail about artist profile protection features on the Spotify for Artists page.
Tightening the screws
Until now, it has been easy for fraudsters to upload AI-generated music to Spotify to impersonate major artists and steal royalties through streams. While Artist Profile Protection doesn’t necessarily remove AI-generated music from the platform entirely, it tightens the screws on the approval process and is a step towards preventing the rise of AI fraud.
The main difference between Spotify’s approach and Apple Music’s system is that while team admins and editors manage the artist protection profile, musicians still have a say in what music is published. And while it’s technically an opt-in system, even if an artist activates the feature and never uses it, music still won’t be released unless approved, so there’s an extra layer of protection.
Apart from these factors, the system also aims to rebuild the trust of listeners so that they can stream their favorite artists with confidence that the music is legitimate. Additionally, it ensures that only artist-approved music appears in your recommendations, such as Discover Weekly and Release Radar, which, as we’ve seen with a handful of viewers, is where most of the AI slop occurs.
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