Spotify has announced a new artificial intelligence partnership with several prominent music labels. The recording branches of Sony, Universal, Warner and others will now work with the music streaming giant to develop “AI music products,” they said on Oct. 16.
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“We’ve been driving initiatives with our partners to put artists at the center of the conversation about gen AI and have struck artist-centric agreements that establish innovative new vehicles to unlock the opportunities presented by this revolutionary technology,” said the CEO of Universal Music Group, Lucian Grainge, on Thursday.
While there are few details on the AI music products that will come from these new partnerships, the joint release highlighted Spotify and the record labels’ desire to respect copyright, stating: “Musicians’ rights matter. Copyright is essential.” The announcement also noted that artists and rightsholders will have a choice in whether and how to participate.
A Spotify spokesperson told CNET that, while the project is still in early development, it aims to build products that use AI to improve the connection between fans and music artists.
The spokesperson added that any AI products would follow Spotify’s four principles: making agreements up-front with music rightsholders, fairly compensating them, giving artists and rightsholders a choice and strengthening the engagement between listeners and artists.
“Technology should always serve artists, not the other way around,” Spotify Co-President Alex Norström said. “Our focus at Spotify is making sure innovation supports artists by protecting their rights, respecting their creative choices and creating new ways for fans to discover and enjoy the music they love.”
It follows Spotify’s announcement last month that it would use a spam filter to crack down on the unauthorized use of AI on the platform. With the filter in place, the number of AI “slop” songs unloaded on Spotify should be reduced.
Spotify also uses artificial intelligence technology for its AI DJ, a feature that builds playlists for you based on what it thinks you’ll like.
Does copyright still matter in the age of generative AI?
This latest announcement comes as the conversation about generative artificial intelligence, fair use and copyright law is heating up.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
A new social media platform from OpenAI called Sora has recently made headlines for allowing people to make AI-generated videos that could feature copyrighted material, including songs and likenesses of famous people who have passed.
OpenAI said copyrighted holders could opt out of letting others on Sora use their copyrighted materials before reversing its policy and saying that people would need to opt in instead.
Earlier this year, Disney and Universal filed a lawsuit against AI image generator Midjourney over its use of copyrighted characters. In 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft over the use of copyrighted articles in training data for OpenAI’s large language models.
Both cases are ongoing as of October 2025.
