Spotify has announced a new AI Persona badge initiative to give listeners more transparency about when an artist’s identity may be AI-generated rather than a real person. By default, music from AI Personas will be omitted from personalized recommendations.
The AI Persona badge will start appearing on artist profiles in mid-September. However, artists can begin voluntarily disclosing whether it applies to them today, August 11th.
Meanwhile, Spotify will also review artist profiles that appear to “represent photorealistic AI-generated identities,” including name and imagery. To encompass “the vast majority of artist profiles that users visit,” the process will begin with artists that meet a certain audience threshold. Artist profiles identified by Spotify’s review team will be notified and afforded the opportunity to self-disclose or appeal.
Spotify notes that this initiative solely targets an artist’s public identity, not whether the music itself was AI-generated. “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,” the company said.
The streaming giant pointed to Spotify’s previously rolled out AI Credits and SongDNA features. Both rely on artists to voluntarily disclose the use of AI, without Spotify’s direct involvement.
Spotify touted in September 2025 that it had removed over 75 million spammy tracks from its platform in the past year and promised to strengthen policies against AI “bad actors.” However, a King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard clone was discovered in December, followed by AI artist Sienna Rose the next month.
Rose released 10 albums between September and December 2025, placing three songs on Spotify’s Viral 50 before questions surfaced about whether it was an AI artist.
The AI Persona badge and Verified by Spotify program are both meant to increase trust in the authenticity of music uploaded to the platform; its competitors are taking varying approaches.
In April, Deezer claimed to be the first music streamer to transparently tag AI music and revealed 75,000 AI songs were uploaded per day. Per Music Business Worldwide, this number increased to nearly 90,000 per day by June, making up half its daily uploads.
