“Spotify is saying, well, we'll only disclose or label a recording as AI in the credits. Well, how many people look at the credit? … If people get recommendations in their algorithm, like if you like this song, you'll also like this one, and when you listen to it, it turns out it was AI and you didn't know it was AI and you feel deceived, that's when they've got a giant problem, because they're responsible for that recommendation. They're the one that fed that to you.”
Decoder with Nilay Patel · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · November 2026
Context
Patel asked whether Spotify has any real incentive to label AI-generated music. Glazier says it is moving too slowly but will be pushed by subscribers who feel duped.
Transcript
I think so. And not because as much as they have an economic incentive to lower their costs, their biggest economic incentive is to keep fans paying $9.99, $12.99, $15.99 a month. And so if fans feel duped, is that
…saying there's AI slap on Spotify now, or when you search for Taylor Swift, you get a bunch of weird Taylor Swift sound-alikes, which is an experience everyone has on Spotify. It hasn't churned those fans yet. There's not some exodus to title or Apple Music. Spotify is still dominant in its way.
Right. I think they're walking down the road slowly, probably a little too slowly, and trying to see if they can do like just enough to keep those two things in balance. Like right now, for example, Spotify is saying, well, we'll only disclose or label a recording as AI in the credits. Well, how many people look at the credit? I wish more people looked at the credits. They'd discover producers and songwriters and other awesome folks who have contributed to the recording, but they don't. They need to do it at the track level. They're not there yet, but they are disclosing AI personas that are made because that's sort of like the highest on the dupe on the dupe scale, right? And then under that, they're looking at the…
an actual market pressure? I can think of all kinds of times fans have revolted against Spotify, right? Like I love the band stars, and every now and again they'll tweet, like, we didn't make any money on this song on Spotify. And everyone tweets at Spotify and they're mad. Spotify is not paying…
It's both. It's a combination. But because there are already laws in other countries that are mandating labels. And once a market like the EU or the US that's such a big market or the UK or China, once they demand labeling on a global system, it's actually cheaper to do it all around the world than…
car emissions model of regulation, right?
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