Spotify is removing millions of AI-generated songs to combat spam
An internal Spotify team is now dedicated to stopping AI‑driven audio clutter
By Alfonso Maruccia
July 17, 2026, 13:01
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SpotiSlop: Advanced language models and sophisticated audio‑generation tools are shaking up the conventional music landscape. Streaming services like Spotify have become prime targets for AI‑enabled spammers, yet industry groups are pushing back through new labeling initiatives.
Sam Duboff, a Spotify executive, recently disclosed that the company had to take down 75 million AI‑generated tracks during 2025 alone. As Spotify’s senior director and global head of marketing, policy, and music business, Duboff contends that AI hasn’t introduced any completely new spam techniques. However, he adds that generative AI and other machine‑learning approaches have elevated audio spam to a higher level.
Spotify now has systems in place to fight both AI‑created “slop” uploads and data scraping by firms looking for fresh material to train their generative models. Duboff confirmed that a “big team” at Spotify is focused on discovering new potential attack vectors that could simplify life for spammers (or scraping bots).
The executive also shared several striking numbers that underscore the rising presence of AI‑produced music on digital platforms. Each day, bots upload roughly 100,000 distinct “songs” to Spotify’s infrastructure, and a large share of those tracks are likely “created” with generative AI services or custom LLM‑based setups.
Duboff acknowledges that not every genAI track can be automatically dismissed as slop. The 75 million songs removed last year represented low‑quality content with minimal human creativity beyond a lazy chatbot prompt. Still, “real” artists are increasingly weaving AI into their production processes, which blurs the line between fake music and human‑curated work.
Spotify is certainly leaning into AI across its operations this year. Earlier in 2026, co‑CEO Gustav Söderström stated that the company’s engineers are essentially letting AI agents handle a large portion of their coding duties. Spotify also noted that AI tools sanctioned by music labels are now permissible for creating remixes and covers that can be sold on the platform.
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Beyond Spotify’s own struggles with spammy tracks, generative AI is pressing the entire music industry to devise fresh approaches to the escalating AI slop issue. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the RIAA, and other major trade bodies recently unveiled a “voluntary” program to properly tag AI‑generated music, giving listeners a clear indication when a song was produced entirely via a chatbot prompt. These labels are also meant to identify “AI‑assisted” music that was predominantly created by human artists.
