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YouTube Music adds labels showing how much of a song was made with generative AI
YouTube Music announced a labeling system that marks songs created fully or partly with generative AI. Music partners can declare one of three designations, Fully Gen AI, Partly Gen AI or No Gen AI, and YouTube also uses its own detection tools. The labels appear on the player page and will extend to the main YouTube app.
Key points
- YouTube Music now labels tracks as Fully Gen AI, Partly Gen AI or No Gen AI.
- Labels combine partner declarations with YouTube's own detection tools and will reach the main YouTube app.
- AI involvement alone does not make a track ineligible for monetization on YouTube.
What happened: YouTube Music announced on Wednesday a new labeling system meant to make songs created with generative AI easier to identify, TechCrunch reported. The labels cover tracks where AI was involved in composition or vocals. A label appears on the player page, and clicking it shows more detail about the specific role AI played in the track. The labels will also extend to the main YouTube app.
The details: YouTube said it worked with music partners and used its own detection tools. Partners can declare one of three designations. Fully Gen AI covers tracks generated entirely by AI. Partly Gen AI covers works that combine AI-generated components with an artist's own live elements. Tracks edited with pitch-correction tools such as Auto-Tune fall under No Gen AI. AI involvement alone does not make a track ineligible for monetization, and YouTube is focusing on disclosure rather than blanket restrictions.
Background: Other streaming services are moving in the same direction. Apple Music plans Made With AI labels as part of its AI Transparency Tags later this year, and Spotify already has AI labels and a music spam filter. Deezer reported in July that it receives nearly 90,000 fully AI-generated tracks every day. It labels detected AI music, keeps it out of algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists, and is working on a filter that lets users remove it. TIDAL labels recordings it identifies as entirely AI-generated and lets listeners turn them off.
What to watch: YouTube also runs Dream Track, an experiment that lets select creators generate soundtracks featuring AI versions of participating artists' voices, so the company is labeling AI music while also building tools to make it.
Our take
Content provenance labels are becoming a platform default, so teams publishing AI-assisted media should expect disclosure requirements to be applied to their work.