The music sharing, purchasing and streaming service Bandcamp has banned all music “generated wholly or in substantial part by AI.” In a blog post on Tuesday titled “Keeping Bandcamp Human,” the company reiterated its commitment to “putting human creativity first.”
As a basis for the ban, Bandcamp cited its dedication to “building a community where artists thrive through the direct support of their fans”; the company was founded 2008 as a marketplace for artists to sell music and merchandise directly to listeners. The new AI policy places a complete embargo on AI-generated music and audio, as well as all uses of AI tools to impersonate existing artists and styles. In short: there’s no space for AI on Bandcamp anymore, and the platform reserves the right to remove any uploaded audio content deemed to violate this policy.
Can Spotify Regulate Misleading AI-Generated Music?
Deceptive AI slop is a growing issueThis decision comes after a number of high-profile controversies related to AI-generated music. In the wake of the Velvet Sundown being exposed as generative AI group and the proliferation of similar tracks across its algorithmic playlists, Spotify announced stronger protections for artists, songwriters and producers. In September, the company claimed to have removed over 75 million “spammy” tracks (from, in their words, “bad actors and content farms” that “push ‘slop’ into the ecosystem”) from the platform in the previous 12 months.
Just a few weeks later, the AI-generated musician Xania Monet debuted on multiple Billboard charts, becoming the first known AI artist to do so. This was around the same time that AI music generator Suno reached a $2.5 billion valuation, and that French streaming platform Deezer published the results of their first-ever AI music survey, which reported that while only 11% of respondents believed that AI-generated and human-created music should be treated equally on the charts, about 50,000 completely AI-generated tracks were being uploaded to the platform daily, accounting for 34% of total uploads. In December, Spotify removed multiple AI-generated tracks purportedly by Australian psych legends King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard — who had pulled their music from the platform in July protesting CEO Daniel Ek’s investments in, you guessed it, an AI defense company.
Yet even with increased stringency, regulation and labeling efforts, no platform has taken as strong of a stance against AI-generated music as Bandcamp. And the reactions — at least from users, musicians and fans — have been overwhelmingly positive, possibly signaling an opening for other companies to follow suit, or at least an opportunity for Bandcamp to reaffirm its commitment to the independent artists it platforms and communities of listeners it serves.
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