Spotify expands AI remix and covers project with Merlin partnership

Spotify used its Q2 earnings call to remind everyone it's still building that AI remix and covers feature it's been hinting at for a while, and this time it came with a real partnership to back it up. Merlin, the licensing outfit that represents independent labels and distributors, is now joining Universal Music Group in the project. That's a meaningful expansion: Merlin's network covers more than 30,000 labels, which means the eventual product could touch a huge slice of music that isn't tied to the major label system.

The pitch from Spotify's leadership is careful and deliberate. Co-CEO Gustav Söderström told investors the whole point is "real artists, not fake artists," drawing a clear line between what Spotify is building and the wave of fully synthetic AI tracks that have been showing up on rival platforms. Co-CEO Alex Norström went further, framing consent, credit, and compensation as the three pillars of the effort. Artists choose whether their catalog gets opened up for fan remixes and covers, they're credited when it's used, and they get paid. Norström called it the first legal pathway for fans to participate in what he's calling the AI music tailwind.

That framing matters because the backdrop is genuinely messy right now. Deezer recently reported that more than half of the daily tracks uploaded to its service are AI-generated, a jump from just 10% back in January. Streaming platforms are effectively drowning in machine-made music with zero human oversight, and labels have been furious about it. Spotify's answer isn't to ban AI outright — it's to build a walled, licensed version of it where rights holders stay in control and get a cut.

Details on rollout are still thin. Spotify says a research preview will go out to a limited group of users first, and notably, participating artists won't need to hand over their entire catalog to get started — they can dip a toe in. No launch date yet, but the company has already said this will ship as a paid add-on, meaning it becomes a new revenue line for both Spotify and the artists who opt in. Söderström was blunt about why Spotify thinks it has leverage here: generic AI-generated music is happening whether streaming services like it or not, but a legitimate, artist-sanctioned remix tool build on real catalogs and real relationships with labels isn't something a random AI startup can replicate overnight.