What, exactly, is Spotify’s “Verfied” badge? Is it to identify AI artists or not?

AI artists are flooding the libraries of streaming music services, and the situation is getting worse. (I take a close look at the problem here.) Something’s gotta be done.

Spotify has begun rolling out “Verified by Spotify” badges–a green tick-mark–that’s supposed to identify AI content. The company outlined what they’re doing for “the AI era” in this blog post.

I quote Bryan Johnson, the head of artist and industry partnerships international: “This provides listeners with a reliable signal of authenticity and trust.” Right.

Spotify says it does a “comprehensive review” of artists on the platform, including “no deceptive behaviour: not spamming Spotify or being a bad actor…“signals of a real, identifiable artist presence both on Spotify and off Spotify as well: concert dates, merch, linked social accounts…”

But here’s the kicker: “Profiles that appear to primarily represent AI-generated or AI-persona artists are not currently eligible for review.”

Ah. So this green badge doesn’t alert listeners that they’re listening to a fake artist. At least not at the moment. Spotify seemed to leave room open to that possibility open in the future.

Why not label humans instead? You know, “Verified made by a real person.”