Apple is requesting artists and record labels on its music streaming platform to voluntarily identify songs created using AI. The newly introduced “Transparency Tags” metadata system for Apple Music was revealed in a newsletter to industry partners, as per Music Business Worldwide, and covers four categories: track, composition, artwork, and music videos.
The track tag should be used when a significant part of a sound recording is AI-generated, while the composition tag applies to AI-generated compositional elements, like song lyrics. The artwork tag pertains to static or moving graphics at the album level. For any other AI-generated visuals, whether standalone or part of albums, the music video tag should be used. Multiple transparency tags can be applied simultaneously for works needing multiple disclosures.
Apple’s newsletter describes these tags as a “concrete first step” towards industry-wide transparency in AI-generated music, emphasizing that labels and distributors must actively disclose AI-created content.
Apple Music’s tagging initiative aligns with efforts by other music streaming platforms to protect genuine artists from spam and impersonation and make AI music more identifiable. Spotify is collaborating with DDEX, a music standards-setting organization, to create a new metadata standard for AI music disclosures, with senior Apple Music executive Nick Williamson on its board. Deezer made its AI music detection tool available to other platforms, and Qobuz launched its AI detection system recently.
Unlike Deezer and Qobuz’s proactive systems, Apple Music’s Transparency Tags are optional and rely on record labels and distributors for AI disclosure rather than the platform itself. Apple leaves the decision of what counts as AI-generated to the content providers’ discretion, like genres and credits, without assuming AI usage for untagged works.
Honesty policies for other AI labeling solutions haven’t been effective so far. Without enforcement in Apple Music’s tagging system, it’s unclear what incentive creators and record labels have to adopt it.