Australia bans fully AI-generated tracks from official charts

Australia’s recorded music industry will exclude tracks created entirely by artificial intelligence from the country’s official music charts, as concerns grow over the impact of generative AI on artists’ livelihoods.

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) said wholly AI-generated tracks will be barred from its charts from Monday next week, although music created with some AI assistance will remain eligible, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

To qualify, tracks must meet requirements including that “humans wrote the song and performed the lead vocal and the primary instruments,” according to an ARIA statement.

The move follows controversy surrounding an AI-generated version of Madonna’s pop hit “Like a Prayer”. Created by an Australian producer using AI-generated vocals and drums, the track has spent 16 weeks in Australia’s top 20. It reached No. 2 on ARIA’s Top 20 Australian Singles chart in May and was still at No. 4 on Tuesday.

Fully AI-generated music will also be excluded from the prestigious ARIA Awards.

ARIA chief executive Annabelle Herd said the changes reflected the organisation’s intention to adapt to rapid technological developments while preserving the human element of music.

“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,” Herd stressed.

“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,” she added.

ARIA maintained that eligible music must be created using legally authorised AI services. The organisation noted that some music appearing on streaming platforms appeared to have been produced with AI systems trained on artists’ work without permission.

The Australian rules align with new principles issued in July by the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents the global recording industry.

Under the international guidelines, music must be “substantially human made” to qualify for official charts.

Alexis Weaver, a composer and lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, claimed that the debate over AI in music was “exceptionally fraught and very emotional for a lot of musicians and so everyone will have a different opinion.”

Weaver welcomed ARIA’s decision as a “wonderful step forward”, saying it demonstrated that the organisation wanted to “prioritize and value human creativity.”

“It can be quite hard to avoid AI tools in the current landscape,” Weaver emphasised. “There is a way to use it while you’re still steering the ship and making the main creative choices.”

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov