Sweden bans viral AI-generated song from charts
An AI-generated song has been banned from entering the Swedish music charts.
The song in question, ‘I Know, You’re Not Mine – Jag Vet, Du Är Inte Min’, by Jakub, has racked up more than six million streams on Spotify alone, and the AI-generated artist has over 900,000 unique monthly listeners on the same platform.
Despite it becoming one of the most popular songs in Sweden, it won’t be allowed to chart due to the use of AI in its creation. It is also currently in second position in Spotify’s ‘Viral Top 50 – Global’ chart.
A spokesperson for IFPI Sweden confirmed, “Jacub’s track has been excluded from Sweden’s official chart, Sverigetopplistan, which is compiled by IFPI Sweden. While the song appears on Spotify’s own charts, it does not qualify for inclusion on the official chart under the current rules.”
Additionally, Ludvig Werner, head of IFPI Sweden, explained the organisation’s decision in a statement, “Our rule is that if it is a song that is mainly AI-generated, it does not have the right to be on the top list.”
IFPI were alerted to the situation after investigative journalist Emanuel Karlsten discovered that the song was registered to Danish music publisher Stellar and two of the people credited with its creation worked in Stellar’s AI department.
In response to the chart ban, the team behind the song later said of their creation, “We are not an anonymous tech company that just ‘pressed a button’. The team behind Jacub consists of experienced music creators, songwriters, and producers who have invested a lot of time, care, emotions, and financial resources.”
They also described the use of AI as a “tool” and “assisting instrument” as part of a wider “human-controlled creative process”.
The statement insisted, “Jacub is an artistic project developed and carried by a team of human songwriters, producers, and creators. The feelings, stories, and experiences in the music are real because they come from real people.”
However, upon answering the lingering question over whether Jacub is a real human, they coyly replied, “That depends on how you define the term.”
There has been a wave of AI-generated music that has found success on Spotify over the past 12 months. Recently, Sienna Rose amassed more than three million unique monthly listeners on the streaming service amid speculation that she is AI rather than a real person.
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