TIDAL pivots to demonetize AI-generated music

Tony Gervino, TIDAL’s EVP and Editor-in-Chief, framed the policy as a necessary defense of the artist-fan connection. Under the new rules, tracks identified as 100% AI-generated will be tagged with an "AI" badge and barred from collecting royalties or participating in direct-to-fan sales. Furthermore, the platform intends to actively remove content that attempts to impersonate established artists or groups.

This shift aligns TIDAL with a broader industry trend. Spotify and Apple Music have already adopted tagging systems to manage the influx of AI tracks, while Deezer has taken a more aggressive stance, removing synthetic music from recommendations and sharing detection tools with competitors. With 44% of new music uploads on some platforms reportedly AI-generated, TIDAL’s decision to cut off revenue streams serves as a high-stakes test to determine if financial disincentives can effectively curb the proliferation of machine-made audio.