Tuesday Jun 30
ENTERTAINMENTOther

TIDAL Stops Paying For AI Music

29JUN
AI MUSIC$0

A streaming service just put a price on being human. TIDAL will stop paying royalties on fully AI tracks from July 15. First platform to hit AI music in the wallet, not just label it.

Spotify and Apple Music flag AI songs. TIDAL goes further. No royalties, no direct-to-fan sales.

Fully AI tracks get an AI badge and stay listenable. They just earn nothing. TIDAL will also auto-remove songs that fake a real artist's voice.

The line is human input. Use AI as a tool, you still get paid. Push-button tracks do not.

full brief & sources

⚡ Why this matters

  • First streamer to attack AI music's money, not just its visibility.
  • Sets a template other platforms can copy fast.
  • Reframes the AI-music fight around who gets paid.

🔍 What happened

  • TIDAL announced the policy on June 29, effective July 15.
  • 100% AI-generated tracks lose royalty eligibility and direct-to-fan sales.
  • Those tracks stay playable but carry an 'AI' badge.
  • Automated tools will remove uploads that impersonate real artists.
  • Human-assisted tracks keep earning if there is real human input.

💬 Smart takes

  • TIDAL: its priority is to reward music created, written, and performed by people.
  • Skeptic: defining '100% AI' is fuzzy, and detection at scale is unproven.

🧭 Where this goes

  1. LikelySpotify and Apple Music face pressure to match the demonetization move.
  2. LikelyAI-only uploads to TIDAL drop once the money disappears.
  3. Possible'human input' becomes a gamed checkbox artists tick to keep payouts.
  4. Wild Carda major label backs a TIDAL-style demonetization rule across all platforms.

🥄 The Spoon Take

Labeling AI music was the easy move. Cutting its money is the real one. TIDAL just turned 'made by a human' into a payout rule, not a vibe. Watch who copies it. The platforms decide what AI music is worth, and TIDAL just said zero.

🤔 Pushback

Detection is the whole game. If TIDAL cannot reliably tell 100% AI from AI-assisted, the rule is a press release, not a policy.

·Music News - TIDAL demonetizes AI·TechCrunch - Spotify AI covers deal·Billboard - AI artists on charts