ARIA Bans Fully AI-Generated Tracks From Australian Charts

According to Scripps News, Australia's ARIA will bar wholly AI-generated tracks from its charts and awards next week, while AI-assisted music stays eligible.

Australia's recorded music industry will bar tracks wholly generated by artificial intelligence from its official charts, Scripps News reports, citing the Australian Record Industry Association. Per an ARIA statement carried by the outlet, the ban takes effect Monday of next week, and AI-generated music will also be ineligible for the prestigious ARIA awards. Tracks will remain eligible only if "humans wrote the song and performed the lead vocal and the primary instruments," among other requirements, and must be produced using legal AI services.

The crackdown follows a striking chart run: Scripps News reports that an Australian producer's AI variation of Madonna's "Like a Prayer," built with AI-generated vocals and drums, has spent 16 weeks in the Australian top 20. According to Scripps News, it peaked at number two on ARIA's top 20 Australian singles chart in May and still sat in fourth place on Tuesday — a result that stoked debate about generative AI's place in music and threatened artists' livelihoods.

ARIA chief executive Annabelle Herd framed the move as a defense of human artistry, saying the changes reflect intent "to promote the human nature of artistry" and warning that "a chart that rewards unlicensed AI output would undercut the very basis of the recorded music we exist to represent," as quoted by Scripps News. The outlet also reports ARIA acted because music was appearing on streaming services apparently developed with AI tools trained on artists' music without authorization — a reversal from charts that had previously counted such hits.

Scripps News notes the Australian rules align with principles released in July by the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which say chart-eligible tracks must be "substantially human made." The stakes are rising industry-wide: Variety separately reports that Stability AI raised $76 million in a funding round backed by Universal, Warner, Sony Music and Electronic Arts, signaling major labels are investing in AI even as bodies like ARIA police its output.

Sydney Conservatorium of Music composer Alexis Weaver told the Australian Broadcasting Corp., as relayed by Scripps News, that the AI debate is "exceptionally fraught and very emotional for a lot of musicians," and she applauded ARIA's move as a "wonderful step forward" signaling it wants to "prioritize and value human creativity." Weaver added that avoiding AI tools is now difficult but there is "a way to use it while you're still steering the ship and making the main creative choices."

Meanwhile the business keeps moving: Digital Music News reports Warner Records Germany has launched, Xelon opened a UK office, and AEG Presents opened a dedicated Berlin office — an expansion happening in the same week the industry drew its hardest line yet against fully machine-made hits.