Apple Music Will Show 'Made With AI' Labels Later This Year

Apple Music will surface listener-facing AI transparency tags later this year, relying on labels and distributors to self-report.

Apple Music has told industry partners that music "materially generated" on AI platforms such as Suno will carry a "Made With AI" label on the service from later this year. The move was announced in a message to partners on August 20, obtained by Music Business Worldwide and The Hollywood Reporter. The labels will make visible a tagging system Apple Music has operated behind the scenes since March, when it introduced what it calls AI Transparency Tags. No specific launch date was disclosed, according to The Hollywood Reporter and PCMag. The announcement follows a July initiative by the RIAA and IFPI calling on streaming services to add AI labels similar to how explicit tracks are disclosed.

Apple Music does not detect AI content itself for the purpose of the labels, relying instead on labels and distributors to declare it — the same approach it took when it launched the tags in March, according to Music Business Worldwide. Apple wrote in its memo that content providers "will be required to include AI Transparency Tags in any instance where AI was used to create a material portion of the content, including tracks that are AI platform generated." The company defines AI-platform-generated content as "anything that is primarily derived from a generative AI service." However, PCMag reports that Apple did not include details on how the requirements will be enforced, and it remains unclear what portion of content would need to be AI-created to trigger the tag.

Apple Music head Oliver Schusser told Billboard that over a third of new monthly uploads to the platform were AI-generated songs, though their actual usage accounted for less than 1 percent of total listens, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter and PCMag. The scale of the problem may be even larger elsewhere: Thurrott.com reports that French streaming service Deezer claimed over 44 percent of tracks uploaded daily to its platform were AI-generated. The rising popularity of generative AI music platforms such as Suno and Udio has led to what Thurrott.com describes as a flood of AI-generated content across streaming services, creating an urgent need for clear labeling standards.

Apple Music's reliance on self-reporting contrasts with approaches taken by competitors. Music Business Worldwide reports that Spotify announced an "AI Persona" badge on August 11 for artist profiles built around AI-generated identities, and said it "won't rely on self-disclosure alone" for these badges, reviewing profiles itself. However, Spotify's badge marks the artist rather than the music; for individual songs, Spotify uses self-disclosed credits and has so far only committed to displaying AI tags in song credits. Thurrott.com and PCMag report that songs from Spotify's AI Personas will be excluded from editorial and algorithmic recommendations. Meanwhile, Music Business Worldwide notes that Deezer deploys its own technology to detect suspected AI-made tracks and labels them accordingly.

The announcement arrives against a relevant regulatory backdrop. Music Business Worldwide reports that the EU AI Act's transparency rules, in force since August 2, require providers of generative AI systems to embed machine-readable markers in content they produce, with services already on the market — including Suno — having until December 2 to comply. Suno said on August 6 it would adopt audio watermarking and fingerprinting "in the coming weeks." Meanwhile, Music Ally observes that Apple's single "material portion" label may not mesh neatly with the two-label system — one for wholly AI-generated tracks and one for AI-assisted tracks — proposed by the RIAA, IFPI, and other trade bodies in July. Music Ally notes that the music industry has proposed one system, Apple Music appears to be using its own, and Spotify has its own as well, leaving hopes for a unified standard uncertain.

The central tension is whether self-reporting by labels and distributors will prove sufficient as AI-generated music continues to proliferate. Apple Music has not disclosed enforcement mechanisms, leaving questions about whether unlabeled AI content could slip through undetected. The Hollywood Reporter notes that Apple Music doubled its penalty fees on those caught engaging in streaming fraud in January, with Schusser acknowledging that AI content proliferation was a factor. If Suno and other generative platforms implement audio watermarking as planned, labels and distributors would gain a technical means of spotting AI content before tagging it for Apple Music or other DSPs, according to Music Business Worldwide. But with Apple, Spotify, and Deezer each pursuing different labeling frameworks, Thurrott.com observes there is a clear need for an industry standard — and no consensus yet on what that should look like.