Apple Music sent an email, obtained by Billboard, to music industry partners on Thursday (Aug. 20), announcing its Made With AI labeling initiative. Later this year, the platform notes that any song that is tagged as being “materially generated using AI” by content providers, like record labels and distributors, will be visibly labeled on the service for users to see.
While it is unclear exactly when these labels will be launched, Apple Music notes that they will appear on the service “later this year.” The news builds on the company’s March announcement of AI Transparency Tags — a system requiring content providers to disclose when and where AI is used in a “material” way, like for the creation of artwork, track, composition and music video.
“As we implement Made With AI Labels, content providers will be important partners,” the email reads. “They are best positioned to know how their content was created, and the AI Transparency Tags that should be used.”
The email notes the requirement to add AI Transparency Tags, which will alert Apple as to when a visible label should be applied. It also stresses that this “includ[es] tracks that are AI platform generated. We define AI-platform-generated content as anything that is primarily derived from a generative AI service.”
News of the new system at Apple Music comes just weeks after a coalition of recorded music industry stakeholders proposed a system for labeling AI music on streaming services. This included the idea of creating two tags — “AI-generated,” which notes a song that includes AI in key instrumentals, lead vocals or was created entirely via a prompt, and “AI-assisted,” which notes songs that include AI in some parts, but humans still perform the lead vocals and instrumentals.
At the time, the announcement was merely a proposal by content providers, rather than a system that was set to roll out across services in a uniform way. The Digital Media Association (DIMA), the trade body representing music streaming services, however, indicated at the time that the platforms were open to supporting it, and certain services like Tidal and Deezer had already been experimenting with labels.
In April, Apple Music executive Oliver Schusser spoke about the impact of AI music on the platform on Billboard On the Record, disclosing that “more than a third” of what they received monthly was “100% AI [music].”
“We have developed — and we’ve never talked about this — but we’ve developed technology in-house that would allow us to exactly see what music people are delivering us, what AI [model] it is and all that,” Schusser continued. “That’s obviously important to know so you can analyze when something’s come in. Now, the reality is, the usage of the AI music on Apple Music is really tiny. I’m rounding but it’s below 0.5% of usage.”
Still, Schusser believes it’s largely on the content providers to “take responsibility” for what to do about this growing flood of AI content. When asked why he allowed labels and distributors to self-disclose artificial intelligence’s use for Apple’s AI Transparency Tags, rather than use their in-house detection system, Schusser replied: “Well, first of all, you should know that every label in the world is delivering AI, [even if] they might not know about it. They themselves also need to develop tools to understand [the scope of AI use].”
