AI-generated music is appealing to streaming services, not least because it could potentially eliminate royalty payments and boost profits. While providers such as Qobuz are distancing themselves from AI-generated music, Tidal and Spotify already have very lax AI policies. According to a report by the Financial Times, Spotify is now planning a full-scale AI push, set to launch as early as the first quarter of 2027.
The streaming market leader is apparently adding an optional AI package to its Spotify Premium subscription, reportedly costing $4 to $5 per month, which could make the service’s Premium subscription up to 39 percent more expensive. Those willing to pay these additional costs are expected to receive two main new features. First, the ability to have artificial intelligence regenerate existing songs as remixes. And second, the option to generate any song as a cover version by any band, thereby changing the song’s style.
I didn’t get it. Imagine the sales pitch here.
“Yeah we are going to make your subscription more expensive, but you’ll get more slop in return!”
Why?!
Because execs have no clue what users want and live in a parallel world in which people want what execs wish people wanted.
Then they’ll be baffled by the low take on their offer and their next step will be to force-enroll existing users on a free trial that won’t stop by itself, hoping some of them will just let it run and get milked.
They have to. This is actually good news. It shows they are losing revenue and are desperate. If you still use Spotify that’s on you.
The article lays it out pretty clearly on why if you read it.
It is unclear how these AI-generated songs will affect the royalties Spotify pays to artists. The company is reportedly already negotiating with record labels, but how high or low the payments to artists will ultimately be is not yet known. Spotify is also reportedly struggling to persuade some artists to agree to the use of their music by AI. According to an analyst quoted by the Financial Times, around 8 percent of all Spotify subscribers could be paying this surcharge for AI-generated songs by the end of 2028.
Money, it’s always money. That’s roughly 25 million subscribers that would be predicted to sign up for AI slop at 5 bucks a month. Combine that with what I’m sure would be looking to pay the artists a lot less and only having to pay for computing resources instead of people, that’s still a fuck ton of money for them.
“Ai efficiencies will be passed on to the customer!”
Remember this next time billionaires say they’ll happily pay onto UBI or whatever.
Because a lot of people don’t care or even like this stuff.
So they will pay more for it, right? Right?
Incredible they got this far with that shitty app.
Exactly. I’m using a fork, which is AI-generated, but still way better and lighter than the original client: https://spotifast.rocks/
They need to make this provider agnostic somehow. That would be amazing.
I quit Spotify when they signed Rogan, but I remember its early days fondly - it used to have a free and open API. You could get visualisers, lyrics, BPM analysers for DJs, Last.fm integration… what a prime example of rampant enshittification.
Cackles maniacally in Plex lifetime pass and self hosting
Why would you pay for AI generated music, surely that has less value to people?
Like I don’t even totally hate the existence of AI generated music. But it isn’t worth anything to me. I can prompt it in seconds. If I wanted some kind of background music generator it would work for that, but I don’t see how that is worth any non zero amount of money.
The moment they do that, I’m bailing.
I’ve seen the writing on the wall for a long time, even if not this outcome exactly, that Spotify will only keep tightening its profit driven screws whilst loosening paying customers QOL experience.
Therefore, I’ve been slowly building up a vinyl collection over the past 15 months or so.
By the time this deadline comes around, I’ll have more than enough physical media to give a shit about what Spotify’s doing anymore.
I’ve also got a reasonably extensive library of flac/VBR .mp3’s.
The only reason I’m subscribed, is to find new artists/bands that I like. Then I purchase physical media of their work.
Due to a lot of them being internationally based, I rarely purchase through bandcamp, because their shipping costs internationally are ridiculous.
Boycott them already. Stop paying them anything.
After the Helsing controversy I dropped them. I miss being able to play local files and better Japanese music coverage but I’m glad my streams are supporting the artists a little more.
First, the ability to have artificial intelligence regenerate existing songs as remixes.
Corpos are truly out of ideas.
Im just realizing that Youtube music pushing so many remixes in the discovery was just enshitfication or IP shrinkflation.
I dont even understand why music labels would want to work with these platforms at all if they are actively doing everything to cut them out and rip off their IP. Who needs enemies with friends like that…
We made them this way by swallowing their shit for decades. No wonder they think it’ll work again this time.
There’s people willing to pay an extra to listen a butchered automatic cover of a song where Spotify probably doesn’t even pay royalties on that?
I thought the market would prefer the opposite: pay extra for a noslop guarantee, with a full monthlysubscription refund if a slop is accidentally inserted in a playlist
Exactly, I would have thought you might have some AI only free/cheaper tier. At least that kinda makes sense as a use case, not that I could see myself ever paying for it
Well, gotta make all the AI cost back somehow. Most people are too comfortable to actually change anything, so they’ll just pay more
/me waiting for the additional charge on top of that they’ll offer in exchange to flick a “no AI” switch.
Me looking at this information with my 1500+ files music collection and my media player: “Spotify? What’s a Spotify?”
Lol, why would anyone pay for slop? I wouldn’t accept this even if they paid me. I like my music exactly the way the artist made it, that’s why he’s an artist after all. Damn morons at Spotify…
Spotify already sucks and is crammed full of ads. I mean Pandora may be mid but my ad-free tear remains ad-free. I miss when they were the Music Genome Project though.
Looks like I’ll have to not use Spotify even harder
The streaming market leader is apparently adding an optional Al package to its Spotify Premium subscription, reportedly costing $4 to $5 per month, which could make the service’s Premium subscription up to 39 percent more expensive.
This sentence is nonsensical - if you get an optional addon, then it’s per definition not a price increase.
It’s like if I went to the grocery store, bought the same items as before and then added several more to the cart, and claimed that “my grocery bill has increased”. Apples and oranges.
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