People listen to Spotify and apparently Spotify listens to people as evidenced by the fact that the streaming platform cut more than 50 million “AI-generated slop and spam” tracks from recommendations this year after listeners expressed their distaste for the junk songs, according to reports.
Spotify’s Efforts to Remove AI-Generated Tracks
Music Business Worldwide reported Tuesday on disclosures by Spotify in which the music service revealed that since it announced AI protections a year ago it had removed the millions of slop and spam tracks from recommendations. Those 50 million removed tracks were in addition to 75 million “spammy tracks” Spotify said it had removed in recent years.
“Earlier this year, we looked closely at the tracks listeners were skipping, ignoring, or telling us they didn’t want to hear,” Spotify said in a post on its site. “A clear pattern emerged: these tracks were consistently ones identified as slop or spam. Over the past six months, we’ve made numerous updates to our recommendation system to remove slop and spam, and surface more music made by authentic, human artists.”
How Spotify Catches AI-Generated Tracks
Trashing spam and slop has worked, according to Spotify, which added, “Since we made these changes, we’ve seen a marked decrease in listener concerns about this content showing up in recommendations.”
Spotify even explained how it catches the garbage tunes through a series of interwoven tools.
“No single signal catches slop or spam on its own, so we combine many: listener engagement and feedback, upload patterns, metadata, and information from multiple third-party AI detection tools,” the streaming service said. “We also hunt for new tactics, including mass uploads, duplicates, SEO manipulation, spammy playlist networks, and artificially short tracks. As spammers change tactics, we’ll keep updating our systems.”
Spotify’s Complex Relationship with AI
While Spotify boasts about cracking down on artificial intelligence in music, the company has embraced AI in other aspects. In 2025, the platform partnered with software company ElevenLabs to expand its offering of AI-narrated audiobooks. Critics have also called out Spotify for not being vigilant enough in removing AI fakes of deceased artists and shutting down musical impersonators, an issue that hit King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, which left the streaming service in 2025 in protest of Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in AI drone technology.
In conclusion, Spotify has taken significant steps to remove AI-generated slop and spam tracks from its recommendations, but the company’s complex relationship with AI remains a topic of debate. As the music industry continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how Spotify and other streaming platforms navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by AI.
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