Spotify will label ‘AI Persona’ profiles and exclude their music from recommendations

Spotify will begin labeling AI-generated artists with “AI Persona” profile tags and ban their music from its editorial and algorithmic recommendations, the company announced on Tuesday.

In mid-September, Spotify users will see “AI Persona” badges appear on some artists’ profiles that signal the artist’s identity is AI-generated, instead of representing a real person. While Spotify will allow artists to identify themselves as AI Personas, the company says it won’t rely on self-disclosure alone.

It will also review artist profiles and identify those where the artist’s name and imagery appear to represent photorealistic AI-generated identities. Spotify said it will begin its review with profiles that have met pre-defined audience thresholds to ensure the more listened-to artists are covered first.

Once labeled, the AI Persona badges will appear on the artist’s profile in the banner and the About section, in Search, and on track rows across playlists.

By default, Spotify won’t include AI Personas in its editorial or algorithmic recommendations, nor will it add AI Personas’ music to users’ personalized recommendations — unless they happen to follow an AI Persona. Only users can choose to follow an artist, so it’s an explicit signal that the user wants to hear more music from that person or group.

The move is the latest expansion of Spotify’s AI policies, which detail guidelines for how AI-generated music appears on its service. First announced in September 2025, Spotify’s current policy identifies and labels AI music using industry-standard techniques, and bans unauthorized AI voice clones and deepfakes from its platform.

Like others in the music industry, Spotify is attempting to balance innovations driven by AI, like its own AI-powered Prompted Playlists, AI DJ and chat, and forthcoming AI remixes, while still managing to thwart the deluge of AI-generated slop — low-quality content that AI has made it easier to mass produce. Allowing slop to proliferate could lead to a poor user experience and subscription cancellations.

Spotify also notes that artists will be able to appeal their AI Persona label if they think it’s been incorrectly applied.

Signaling its understanding of a growing consumer backlash against AI-generated art, Spotify wrote in its announcement that, “while we believe all artists have creative choice in determining how they present themselves, Spotify’s programming is focused on elevating music from authentic artists building careers in music.”

However, the company clarified that an AI Persona is a judgment on the artist’s profile, not the music.

“Although there’s a broad spectrum in how artists use AI as a creative tool, the question of whether a profile represents an actual human is one where Spotify can help make a clear determination. This badge is about the artist’s public identity, not about how the music was made,” the company said.

Information about how the music itself was made will continue to be available through Spotify’s other features, like AI Credits and SongDNA.

In the months ahead, Spotify will also roll out a tool that allows users to report artist profiles that appear to be AI Personas that haven’t yet been labeled.

The addition of the labels will also help Spotify users to differentiate between AI Personas and the forthcoming AI-generated remixes and covers, soon to be permitted by Spotify’s recent licensing deals with labels UMG and Merlin. The latter will allow for fan-made remixes and covers, while still funneling money back to the participating artists.

As for the AI Personas, Spotify says artists will be able to self-disclose starting on August 11, 2026, through Spotify for Artists. The labels themselves will appear starting next month.