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Spotify now calls its 1,000-stream royalty threshold a "first line of defense" against AI-generated tracks, which it says are 10 times more likely to fall below it. The same rule decides whether a new human artist earns anything, and Spotify still keeps one of its two tests secret.
Industryvia Spotify Newsroom
Believe and TuneCore became the fourth licensor of Spotify's planned AI covers and remixes add-on on 20 Oct 2026, and the first to describe an artist-level, two-step opt-in. The earlier UMG and Kobalt announcements talk about "participating" artists without saying who makes that choice, and Merlin says artists get a choice without describing how. Price, revenue split and launch date are still undisclosed.
AIvia Spotify Newsroom
Sony Music has now asked platforms to remove more than 260,000 AI tracks imitating its artists, up from 135,000 at the end of March. That is roughly 20,000 requests a month, which is a full-time enforcement operation. An independent artist facing the same impersonation has a report form, a distributor and their own spare time.
Industryvia Spotify for Artists Support
LANDR says artificial streams flagged by Spotify across its catalogue fell 95% between Q1 2025 and Q2 2026, and it is now screening releases before they reach streaming services. The figure is company-reported with no base disclosed, and it says nothing about honest artists caught by the same filters.
Industryvia LANDR (press release)
A New York federal judge has refused to let the Mechanical Licensing Collective appeal early against the ruling that Spotify Premium is a "bundle" with audiobooks, which lets Spotify pay US songwriters a lower mechanical rate. The judge also threw out Spotify's "unclean hands" defence. Songwriters now wait for the whole case to finish, even though subscription prices rose again in February.
Artist rightsvia US District Court, Southern District of New York
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