Spotify reports on its fight against AI-generated 'slop and spam' music, but critics see gaps

Music streaming platform Spotify published a blog post on Tuesday updating its efforts against AI-generated music that it calls 'slop and spam', low-quality content produced in bulk. The first policy changes were announced just over a year ago, in September 2025. Technology outlet Engadget argues the measures still fall short.

What Spotify announced

Spotify says it has removed 50 million tracks it classed as slop or spam from recommendations so far this year. Over the past six months, it adjusted the recommendation system to promote more tracks from 'authentic, human artists'. Editors also exclude such tracks from curated playlists.

Before the changes, the company studied which songs users skipped, ignored or said they did not want to hear, and found a clear pattern of rejection. It says listener complaints have since dropped markedly. Detection relies on metadata, user feedback, upload patterns and third-party AI detection tools, which the company admits have limits and will struggle more as generative AI advances.

The criticism

Engadget stresses that the tracks were removed from recommendations, not necessarily from the platform. Spotify says it has deleted more than 75 million spammy tracks for serious or repeated violations, but that is the same figure given in September 2025, and no update has been provided.

Meanwhile, the platform offers AI tools for remixing and covering songs. Some artists widely believed to be fake, such as The Velvet Sundown and Sienna Rose, have more than 100,000 monthly listeners. Spotify offers no option to switch off AI music entirely, unlike Deezer, which said it will add such a filter by the end of the year.

Other measures

Artists submit tens of thousands of AI credits a day, visible in the mobile Now Playing view. Thousands of virtual artists now carry an 'AI Persona' label. More than 300,000 human artists are verified, and a tool letting musicians approve which songs appear on their profile will be available to all artists by year-end.