Roughly 75,000 fully AI-generated tracks hit Deezer alone every day — about 44% of all new music delivered to that platform, according to the company’s own disclosures. Up to 85% of streams on those tracks were fraudulent in 2025. Spotify scrubbed 75 million “spammy” tracks over the past year. The streaming economy built for human musicians is drowning in algorithmic output — and the payout systems designed for artists are taking the hit.
TIDAL just dropped a formal response. As of June 29, wholly AI-generated music on the Block-owned platform can still exist — but it earns zero royalties. The tracks stay up. The checks don’t come.
What the Policy Actually Does
Three enforcement layers roll out across two dates, with distributors on the hook for pre-upload disclosure.
The mechanics break down cleanly:
- Royalty blocking on wholly AI-generated tracks — effective June 29
- Consumer-facing “AI” badges and removal of fraudulent content (artist impersonations, streaming manipulation schemes) — rolling out July 15
- Distributors must flag AI content before upload or face enforcement
- TIDAL’s Upload tool for independents blocks AI-generated tracks from direct-to-fan sales entirely
The tricky part: TIDAL hasn’t defined a hard threshold between “wholly” and “substantially” AI-generated. Hybrid tracks where humans compose, perform, or heavily guide AI tools may still qualify for royalties. Detection will sharpen over time, and tagging will expand to “substantially” AI-generated music — but the exact line stays blurry for now. TIDAL calls the policy “a living document,” which is honest shorthand for “details are still being worked out.”
“AI’s takeover of the music industry (and your recommendations) isn’t inevitable if we take even greater steps now to monitor and control it.” — Tony Gervino, TIDAL EVP & Editor-in-Chief
A Different Lane on a Crowded Highway
Every major streaming platform has drawn a different line on AI music — TIDAL’s is the sharpest economic boundary yet.
| Platform | Approach |
|---|---|
| Bandcamp | Full prohibition — no AI-generated music, period |
| Spotify | Pays out on AI tracks but fights spam and impersonation separately |
| Apple Music | Delegates disclosure entirely to labels |
| Deezer | Tags and strips fraudulent streams |
| TIDAL | AI music allowed but earns zero royalties; uploaded music won’t train generative AI models |
The unresolved question hanging over all of this is whether “allowed but unpaid” survives contact with evolving copyright frameworks. WIPO is already asking who gets compensated when a model trained on human music generates a track. As tools from platforms like Suno grow more sophisticated and legal precedent catches up, that question gets harder to sidestep. TIDAL’s answer, for now, is clean and blunt — nobody.
