Apple Music to add a tag for AI-generated tracks

Apple Music will begin labeling AI-generated tracks later this year, adding "Made With AI" tags to any content that was, in the company's phrasing, "materially generated using AI."

In a new email to industry partners, Apple reminded record labels and distributors that when they submit content that was materially generated using AI, they should tag it as such using the "AI transparency tags" the company introduced in March. Those tags were optional at launch, but Apple's latest email says content providers will now be required to include them whenever AI was used to create a material portion of a track, its composition, artwork or accompanying video.

Apple is relying on labels and distributors to make that determination themselves, saying in its email that they are "best positioned to know how their content was created." The approach differs from rivals: Deezer automatically tags AI-generated tracks using its own detection technology, Spotify plans to label AI-generated artist personas rather than individual tracks, and Tidal both labels AI tracks and withholds royalties from them entirely.

The labeling push comes alongside Apple's broader effort to police fraudulent activity on the platform. The company's vice president, Oliver Schusser, has said Apple Music demonetized two billion "fraudulent" music streams in 2025, worth around $17 million in withheld royalties, and told Billboard in April that more than a third of all tracks uploaded to the platform are made entirely using AI.

Apple has not said exactly when the new labels will go live, leaving open questions about how strictly "primarily derived from a generative AI service" will be interpreted in practice as the wider streaming industry, including Spotify, Beatport and Bandcamp, moves toward similar AI-disclosure policies.