AI-generated songs are no longer welcome on Australia's main music charts.
The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has announced their new rules for how to approach AI music today. Taking into account global principles governing AI music set out by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), ARIA has declared, "Wholly AI-generated tracks will not be eligible for the ARIA Charts. Recordings that use generative AI in a supporting role remain eligible." The rule will take effect on the charts debuting this Friday, Aug. 28, dated for Aug. 31.
What does a chart-eligible "supporting role" for AI entail? ARIA lists two points: "It is substantially human made" and "It raises no stream or chart manipulation concerns." That first one is still pretty vague, so it will be interesting to see how they apply and enforce it as the lines continue to blur.
Annabelle Herd, ARIA's CEO, offered this statement:
These changes reflect our intent to remain dynamic and promote the human nature of artistry in what is – to say the least – a rapidly developing space. Artists already use AI tools in their work, the Charts can and should evolve to keep room for that, but music generated wholesale by services built on artists’ recordings is a different matter.
The ARIA Charts will always remain a transparent measurement of the music Australia consumes, but a chart that rewards unlicensed AI output would undercut the very basis of the recorded music we exist to represent. We have worked closely with IFPI and a number of international industry bodies to understand how to best implement these changes in a way that is both clear and future-facing.
This gives everyone who releases music in Australia a clear rule to work to. We call on all parties who have a role in deciding the music played and promoted to Australian audiences, particularly radio, to support human artistry and implement similar changes across their own codes.
ARIA's updated Code Of Practice also includes new procedures for appealing an exclusion from the Charts based on presumed AI usage.
The change comes at a time when AI-generated music is proliferating at a rapid clip. The streaming service Deezer estimated this year that 44% of all tracks uploaded to its servers are AI-generated, and at least a few of them are gaining traction. In the US, Fenix Flexin's AI-generated "Rubberz" cracked the Billboard Hot 100.
Speaking of Billboard, today it announced new tools for identifying and labeling AI-generated content to assist with enforcement of its existing rules and ensure "transparency" around AI usage. As part of that effort, Luminate, the stats company affiliated with Billboard, will add labels to AI-generated songs later this year. A group of record labels including the three majors recently proposed rules requiring songs to be "substantially human made" in order to qualify for Billboard's charts, but for now, AI-generated music can chart in the US; it will simply be labeled as AI-generated.