Spotify and other music streaming platforms are slowly filling up with AI slop.
Reluctant to take a stance against the rising tide of soulless music, Spotify has allowed people to publish AI-generated music on its platform while posing as real musicians.
While this might be great for Spotify’s bottom line, it’s no surprise that people are unhappy knowing they have no idea whether the music they’re listening to is AI-generated, without thorough research.
However, Spotify recently launched a substantial measure to help users identify AI-generated music.
While a total ban is not in the works, this update, combined with other AI-detection measures, has made identifying and blocking AI music an achievable task.
How Spotify’s verification system works
Real human activity is required to earn a verified badge
Verified by Spotify isn’t the first step the platform has made towards tackling the flood of AI slop on its platform, but it’s the most significant.
To receive the Verified by Spotify badge, artist profiles must meet Spotify’s criteria for authenticity and trust:
- Consistent listener activity and engagement over time. Profiles must show that listeners are actively and intentionally seeking them out over a sustained period of time. This targets profiles that experience one-time spikes in engagement.
- Good standing with Spotify’s platform policies.
- Signals of a real artist represented in the profile. For example, concert dates, merch, and linked social accounts on their artist profile.
The most significant part of this update is that artists won’t have to apply for verification.
Spotify claims that it has ensured that at launch, “more than 99% of the artists Spotify listeners actively search for will be verified, representing hundreds of thousands of artists,” and reviews and verification will happen on an ongoing basis.
However, no filter is perfect, and legitimate artists may experience significant wait times until they receive their verification badge. That means that not seeing a verification badge doesn’t mean the artist is AI.
Spotify is adding additional context to artist profiles (such as career milestones, release activity, and touring activity). Still, it’s not the only way to identify an AI artist or AI-generated track.
Internal features only go so far for identifying AI tracks
Fraudulent actors can still circumvent restrictions
Spotify is also helping develop and support the new industry standard for AI disclosures in music credits. This standard allows labels and distributors to clearly indicate whether and how AI was used in generating music.
However, the system relies on voluntary disclosure and, similar to Verified by Spotify’s flaws, the lack of AI credits doesn’t mean AI wasn’t used.
The best way to identify an AI-generated track on Spotify is to use a third-party tool.
Some third-party tools may violate Spotify’s Terms of Service. Use at your own risk.
The first tool worth exploring is the aptly named Spotify AI Music Blocker. This script references a community-maintained list of artists known for AI-generated music to block them on Spotify’s web player.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Blocked artists will still show up in results, but their music won’t play in playlists, song radios, or Discover Weekly. As it utilizes Spotify’s built-in block feature, it syncs across all your devices.
However, you’ll need to open Spotify’s Web Player regularly to run the script. Spotify AI Music Blocker is updated daily, and the script runs automatically whenever you open the web player.
However, Spotify AI Music Blocker only works with Spotify. But if you want to check a track on Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, or Disco, there’s another handy web app.
AI Song Checker checks songs against a set of 21 features to determine whether they’re AI-generated or not. The creator points out that the tool is about 90% accurate, but accuracy also depends on the length of the track sample.
While many are clamoring for a total ban on AI-generated music, Spotify has stated that it will neither promote nor penalize AI-generated or AI-assisted music.
However, this statement rings false, as users have reported AI-generated tracks appearing in their Discover Weekly playlist, with some reporting that these tracks make up nearly half of the suggested music.
The sad fact is that tools like Spotify AI Music Blocker are constantly playing catch-up.
Deezer reported in late April 2026 that nearly 75,000 AI tracks are uploaded every day, representing roughly 44% of daily uploads to its platform. Community-maintained lists are therefore always behind; Spotify AI Music Blocker’s list contains 7,004 artists at the time of writing.
So it remains impossible to avoid AI-generated music fully. But by adopting these tried-and-tested third-party tools and searching for alternative ways to listen to music, you can minimize its impact on your life.
