Tootfinder

A US federal court sentences Michael Smith, who pleaded guilty to using bots to stream AI-generated songs, making $8M in royalties, to 18 months in prison (Bill Donahue/Billboard)
https://www.billboard.com/pro/ai-music-streaming-fraud-sentence-man-…

AI Music Streaming Fraudster Sentenced to 1.5 Years in Prison for $8M Royalties Scam
An AI music streaming fraudster was sentenced to 18 months in prison for an $8 million scam. It was the first-ever criminal case over streaming fraud.

A US federal court sentences Michael Smith, who pleaded guilty to using bots to stream AI-generated songs, making $8M in royalties, to 18 months in prison (Bill Donahue/Billboard)
https://www.billboard.com/pro/ai-music-streaming-fraud-sentence-man-…

AI Music Streaming Fraudster Sentenced to 1.5 Years in Prison for $8M Royalties Scam
An AI music streaming fraudster was sentenced to 18 months in prison for an $8 million scam. It was the first-ever criminal case over streaming fraud.

Email: Apple Music tells industry partners that songs tagged as "materially generated using AI" by content providers will be visibly labeled on the service (Kristin Robinson/Billboard)
https://www.billboard.com/pro/apple-music-to-label-ai-generated-music/

Apple Music to Add Labels for AI-Generated Music Later This Year
Apple Music will add labels for AI-generated music later this year.

Email: Apple Music tells industry partners that songs tagged as "materially generated using AI" by content providers will be visibly labeled on the service (Kristin Robinson/Billboard)
https://www.billboard.com/pro/apple-music-to-label-ai-generated-music/

Apple Music to Add Labels for AI-Generated Music Later This Year
Apple Music will add labels for AI-generated music later this year.

FURBNET PROGRESS: database system has been rewritten, it's now *way* faster! MIDI previews are generated and cached on demand, as well! give it a try! https://www.furbnet.com/index.iva

Last year, I reported on Blaze Foley,
a country musician who was murdered in 1989, but whose Spotify page was suddenly featuring new, AI-generated music under his name.
I’ve recently reviewed dozens of examples of other dead musicians who are also apparently publishing AI-generated music under their names on Spotify.
In some cases, album covers for dead, Black jazz musicians feature white, AI generated artists instead. 

Tidal won’t pay royalties on AI-generated music, but isn’t banning it outright https://www.theverge.com/tech/959211/tidal-ai-music-policy-demonetizingdetect-label

Australia's ARIA says songs created mostly or entirely by AI will be excluded from its charts; a song that used AI became the most-played song on radio in July (Cam Wilson/ABC)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-25/ai-generated-music-to-…

AI-generated music to be banned from ARIA charts
Songs created mostly or entirely by artificial intelligence will be excluded from Australia's official music charts from this Friday.

UMG, WMG, Sony, and other record companies propose a set of principles for how AI-generated songs should be considered for chart eligibility (Ariel King/Billboard)
https://www.billboard.com/pro/umg-wmg-sony-propose-principles-ai-song-chart-eligibility…

UMG, WMG, Sony Music, HYBE, Believe, BMG & More Propose New Principles for AI Song Chart Eligibility
Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music, HYBE, Believe and more proposed guidelines on how AI songs should be considered for chart eligibility.

I Hijacked a Real Artist's Spotify with AI Music. It Was Disturbingly Easy https://www.404media.co/spotify-ai-music-scam/

Music producers are calling out tracks suspected of using AI tools like Suno, as the internet becomes increasingly filled with AI-generated music (Charles Pulliam-Moore/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/985866/h4rris-nihil-young-edm-suno-ai…

Musicians-turned-detectives are hunting for AI grifters
The spread of AI-generated EDM music is creating a culture of callouts and mistrust among artists.

It's great that Qobuz now labels tracks that contain AI generated material ❤️‍🔥
#Qobuz #Music #ShareYourMusic

Australia's ARIA says songs created mostly or entirely by AI will be excluded from its charts; a song that used AI became the most-played song on radio in July (Cam Wilson/ABC)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-25/ai-generated-music-to-…

AI-generated music to be banned from ARIA charts
Songs created mostly or entirely by artificial intelligence will be excluded from Australia's official music charts from this Friday.

UMG sues DistroKid, alleging it distributes AI-generated music masquerading as artist-backed releases and knowingly "proliferates" copyright-infringing tracks (Tim Ingham/Music Business Worldwide)
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/uni

Universal Music Group sues DistroKid, accusing it of ‘unlawful practices’ and ‘flooding platforms with
Key parts of UMG’s suit center on DistroKid’s alleged involvement with AI-made music.

A distribution loophole lets anyone upload songs to artists' Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music pages and get royalties; AI turbocharges the issue (Emanuel Maiberg/404 Media)
https://www.404media.co/spotify-ai-music-scam/

I Hijacked a Real Artist's Spotify with AI Music. It Was Disturbingly Easy
A glaring loophole in digital music distribution makes it very easy to piggyback on the talent of real artists with AI generated music.

UMG sues DistroKid, alleging it distributes AI-generated music masquerading as artist-backed releases and knowingly "proliferates" copyright-infringing tracks (Tim Ingham/Music Business Worldwide)
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/uni

Universal Music Group sues DistroKid, accusing it of ‘unlawful practices’ and ‘flooding platforms with
Key parts of UMG’s suit center on DistroKid’s alleged involvement with AI-made music.

Just Trying to Figure Out My Job by vlogbrothers
The Hank Green AI Policy
1. No portion of any script will be written, edited, or outlined by an LLM.
2. The thesis of a video will always originate with a human.
3. No image or music in a video will be generated by AI. If something is accidentally included, best efforts will be made to remove it.

Google adds a toggle in Gemini and Flow to remove visible watermarks from AI generated images, videos, and music; SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata remain (Emma Roth/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/tech/980416/google-gemini-ai-watermarks-removal

You can now turn off Google Gemini’s visible watermarks
Google will now allow users to remove visible watermarks from images, videos, and music generated with Gemini and its other AI tools. 

Spotify plans to roll out AI Persona labeling in mid-September for profiles that do "not represent a real person"; the system uses human review and AI tools (Emma Roth/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/977815/spotify-ai-persona…

Spotify says it won’t recommend music from ‘AI Personas’
Spotify will label artists as “AI Personas” if their identities appear to be AI-generated. The music streaming platform will also remove music from AI Personas from personalized recommendations.

Spotify says it will roll out an "AI Persona" badge in September for profiles that do "not represent a real person" and exclude their music from recommendations (Emma Roth/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/977815/spot…

Spotify says it won’t recommend music from ‘AI Personas’
Spotify will label artists as “AI Personas” if their identities appear to be AI-generated. The music streaming platform will also remove music from AI Personas from personalized recommendations.

The IFPI says music companies and distributors agreed on new rules to combat the use of AI-generated music to defraud streaming services and divert royalties (Daniel Thomas/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/c1f17709-7fc8-4afc-8ac9-38cd923f0064

Google adds a toggle in Gemini and Flow to remove visible watermarks from AI-generated images, videos, and music; SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata remain (Emma Roth/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/tech/980416/google-gemini-ai-watermarks-removal

You can now turn off Google Gemini’s visible watermarks
Google will now allow users to remove visible watermarks from images, videos, and music generated with Gemini and its other AI tools. 

The IFPI says music companies and distributors agreed on new rules to combat the use of AI-generated music to defraud streaming services and divert royalties (Daniel Thomas/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/c1f17709-7fc8-4afc-8ac9-38cd923f0064

Working on some videos for my new vocal quartet... Didn't realise there were auto-generated subtitles on Peertube.
We're, unfortunately, not singing about toast much. Yet.
#music #singing #ClassicalSinging #ClassicalMusic #baritone #SingersLife