Major Labels Call to Disqualify AI Slop Songs from the Charts

The music industry’s ongoing efforts to counter the threats posed by AI have led nearly a dozen of the biggest record companies, including Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music, and Warner Music Group (WMG), to call on global music charts to disqualify many AI “slop tracks” from inclusion in the rankings. Although AI-generated songs have not yet overwhelmed the charts, tracks created by using generative AI systems, many trained on artists’ music without authorization, are increasingly present on streaming services.

The record companies argue AI-generated songs should be included only if the use of AI has been properly authorized and lawful, the track substantially made by humans, and the recording free of concerns of streaming fraud or chart manipulation.

The current state of play between the record companies and AI generative platforms is complex. Many of the record labels have negotiated partnerships with companies to develop AI music tools, while also taking these same companies to court over allegations of mass copyright infringement to train their models.

UMG, Sony, and WMG all sued AI music generators Suno and Udio in 2024. UMG settled with Udio last year, and WMG settled with both Suno and Udio. Sony has not yet reached an agreement with either company. These settlements have subsequently drawn legal fire from the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), which alleges neither label has shared the agreements’ financial benefits with the artists responsible for the music.

The call for disqualifying AI “slop tracks” from global music charts comes just a few weeks after a group of music industry and artists’ organizations, including the Recording Industry Association of America, the Grammys, and SAG-AFTRA, encouraged streaming services to more explicitly label AI-generated content on their platforms, using AI icons to indicate the extent to which AI was used in creating the music.

The three-way tug-of-war among the entrepreneurial, generative AI companies, the well-established record labels, and the artists themselves represents a generational battle over who will benefit, and how much, from the integration of new technologies to reenvision a century-old business model. The only certainty is that lawyers will be among those made happier by whatever outcomes eventuate.