Tech

Tens of Thousands of AI-Generated Songs Purged From Spotify

NICE TRY, AI

The music streaming service brought down the hammer on the company Boomy for its AI-made content and allegations of artificially enhancing stream counts.

A smartphone and a headset are seen in front of a screen projection of Spotify logo.
Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters

Step aside, artificial intelligence, because Spotify is cracking down on non-human-produced music by purging tens thousands of tracks from Boomy, a startup that encourages users to “unleash [their] creativity” through AI-powered music. Spotify removed about 7 percent of all tunes uploaded by Boomy, which comes out to “tens of thousands of songs,” a source close to the situation told Ars Technica. Boomy’s website claims it has created more than 14.5 million tracks, or nearly 14 percent of the world’s recorded music, since its launch in 2018. But Spotify has raised suspicions over artificially boosted stream counts on Boomy’s songs from bots masquerading as human listeners. “Artificial streaming is a longstanding, industry-wide issue that Spotify is working to stamp out across our service,” the company said in a statement to Insider. Boomy insisted it’s against “any type of manipulation or artificial streaming” and said it was working with Spotify to have its inventory restored.

Read it at Ars Technica