The RIAA and IFPI are leading a coalition of music industry bodies in a push to have AI-made tracks labelled across the world's streaming services, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on Friday (10 July). The group plans to work with platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music to attach two distinct tags, distinguishing fully AI-generated tracks from those only partly made with AI. The move matters because it arrives amid growing pressure for greater transparency on streaming services, with the labels intended to sit on a track much as the "explicit" marker does today.

The proposed "AI-generated" tag would apply to tracks built entirely by AI or where a machine produced the lead vocal or main instrumental takes, while "AI-assisted" would flag largely human-made tracks that lean on AI in places; the tags would not cover AI use in composition, lyrics, cover art or videos, and would be applied voluntarily. Other backers include the Recording Academy, SAG-AFTRA, the Human Artistry Campaign and the American Association of Independent Music. A Deezer/Ipsos study of 9,000 listeners found 97% could not tell AI songs from human-made ones, yet 80% wanted fully AI tracks labelled. The Digital Media Association, representing Spotify and Apple, said it was watching the move and wanted fuller, more reliable AI data, but did not confirm whether members would adopt the tags; Deezer, which began platform-level detection in 2025, reported taking in nearly 75,000 fully AI-generated tracks a day — over 44% of new deliveries.