Beatport Takes a Stand Against Fully AI-Generated Music

Beatport has announced plans to ban tracks that are fully or majority AI-generated music. Tracks made with the assistance of artificial intelligence will also be tagged as such in order to improve transparency for the platform’s community of DJs and listeners.

The move follows an expanded partnership with fraud detection specialist Beatdapp, utilizing updated technology and processes designed to make identifying automated and generative music more efficient. Tracks created fully or mostly using AI will be rejected from the platform moving forward, with rightsholders notified directly.

“Music created with AI assistance will still be accepted, provided the finished track remains majority human-made,” Beatport’s policy page explained. “These releases will be tagged during ingestion, giving Beatport’s curation team a clearer picture of what it is reviewing and featuring.”

According to the platform, the decision to ban fully and majority AI-generated music reflects the views of its community, many of whom are DJs. A recent survey found that 60% would not play AI-generated tracks, with 77% citing “a firm preference for supporting human creators.” Just 8% said they were open to playing AI-generated music, while a further 13% would consider it if artists and labels were properly compensated.

“Beatport exists to serve DJs and empower artists & labels. This means partnering with our community and providing confidence in what our platform offers,” said Beatport CEO, Matt Gralen. “While new production techniques have driven electronic music forward since the beginning, there is a difference between a tool that assists human creation and a system that replaces it entirely. Beatport is built on the former.”

Beatdapp co-founder and co-CEO Andrew Batey added that the partnership will “bring greater transparency to generative AI while protecting human creativity.”

The industry is grappling with the rapid rise of synthetic audio. Last month, Paris-based streaming giant Deezer confirmed around 50% of daily uploads to the service were now AI-generated. Earlier in August, Spotify announced it would begin labeling AI-generated artist profiles with a new ‘AI persona’ badge. Meanwhile, in June, US magazine The Atlantic published an investigation which showed AI developers were using some 21 million copyrighted tracks to power their generative models.