Songs created by AI banned from Australia's music charts
BBC News ● Covered by 2 sources
Australia just kicked AI-made songs out of its charts. Humans now have to do the real writing and performing, or the track doesn’t count.
Based on reporting by BBC News — read the original for the full story.
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Australia’s music charts have drawn a line in the sand: songs that are largely or wholly created by AI are out. From this week, releases must be “substantially human made” to qualify for the ARIA charts, the country’s main rankings body said.
The change comes after a messy public fight over a cover of Madonna’s Like A Prayer by Australian DJ Josh Fawaz. The track hit No. 1 on the ARIA dance singles chart and got as high as No. 2 on the all-genre chart. It also turned up everywhere else: commercial radio playlists, Spotify, and eventually a backlash strong enough that Fawaz added generative AI credits to the song.
ARIA says the point is simple. Australian artists are fighting for attention in “the most crowded market in history,” and the organisation is “not interested in promoting or celebrating the success of AI-generated music that does not contain human artistry.” Under the new rules, AI can still assist. But humans must have written the song, and they must have handled the lead vocal and the main instruments. AI can still be used for mastering, drum machines and auto tune.
The code also reaches beyond authorship. Tracks can be excluded if they raise concerns about stream or chart manipulation, and artists will have to declare any AI use when they submit music. If a song later turns out to have been mostly AI-generated, ARIA can change its chart position after the fact. If it had reached No. 1, the group may ask for the awards back.
This isn’t a one-country freakout. Sweden already banned an AI-made song from its charts earlier this year, and the IFPI said in July that similar AI rules would be used for official charts across Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. In Australia, the political mood is moving the same way: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised “the strongest possible protection” for creatives, and said it would be “theft” if their work was used for AI training without choice and payment.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Good. Charts are supposed to measure human taste, not reward the cheapest way to fake it. The soft bigotry here is the idea that “AI-assisted” and “AI-generated” are basically the same thing; ARIA just stopped pretending. Expect more of this wherever rights holders still remember that music is made by people, not prompt farms.
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