Bandcamp this week announced that it is banning AI-generated music, saying “We believe that the human connection found through music is a vital part of our society and culture, and that music is much more than a product to be consumed.”
The move comes as some streaming services are increasingly playing AI-generated tracks to listeners, instead of musician’s music.
Bandcamp shared these guidelines:
- Music and audio that is generated wholly or in substantial part by AI is not permitted on Bandcamp.
- Any use of AI tools to impersonate other artists or styles is strictly prohibited in accordance with our existing policies prohibiting impersonation and intellectual property infringement.
“We reserve the right to remove any music on suspicion of being AI-generated,” the company notes, adding “With this policy, we’re putting human creativity first.”
For Bandcamp, it’s a sensible move, because they make money by taking a cut of artists sales, and AI-generated music can’t be copyrighted. AI-generated music also introduces a lot of legal questions that can be avoided by focusing on music composed by musicians.
For most musicians, the announcement is probably welcome, but raises questions about how they will enforce the ban. They are encouraging users to report music that’s suspected of being AI-generated.
AI can be used in the production of music, and still be copyrighted. AI tools and effects do not raise any authorship questions, and AI-generated samples can be used as a starting point for composition. It’s ‘AI slop’ that is banned.
What do you think of Bandcamp’s ban? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!
Refraining from selling AI-slop will strengthen Bandcamp’s profile as a “genuine” music platform, which is becoming more important as AI-generated music “improves” (i.e., more accurately mimics real music). It’s a smart decision.
Interesting news, this. Songtradr is Bandcamp’s owner these days, so hopefully the parent company & its whole portfolio take the same position. Their reach is pretty serious & could go a long way to slowing the spread of slop (on platforms other than Spotify etc).
Interesting news, this. Songtradr is Bandcamp’s owner these days, so hopefully the parent company & its whole portfolio take the same position. Their reach is pretty serious & could go a long way to slowing the spread of slop (on platforms other than Spotify etc).
Interesting news, this. Songtradr is Bandcamp’s owner these days, so hopefully the parent company & its whole portfolio take the same position. Their reach is pretty serious & could go a long way to slowing the spread of slop (on platforms other than Spotify etc).
Sorry for the triple post! @Synthead, @Elizabeth etc, please delete these dud posts.
Great news.
Seems like a good decision to me but how accurate are AI detection tools?
Excellent choice.
Happy to hear this, hopefully the detection will be strong and not have bugs and errors
Looks like there is no detection except the community police.
I think this is a strong move for them and people will get behind it. It’s a start at standing up for art and the human connection.
AI-Generated Music is quite a ambiguous term … software that churns out procedurally generated content (beats phrase etc ) has become common place and some of the software that is available for free is next level (FluCoMa..Wekinator..dataknot etc .. ) .. i think banning AI-generated music is a stupid click bait thing to say …its like banning hammers.. …these online music platforms should be actively resisting the standardization of culture, design, and ecology driven by profit. …why not just ban the artists who create music that sounds like other peoples music and leave my tools alone .. . 🙂
Your ‘tools’ are AI generated music whether you believe it to be or not. “Wholly or in substantial part”
Ritorna il vecchio dilemma, musica fatta dall’uomo o musica fatta dalla macchina? macchina che non è autonoma e sufficiente a se stessa, quindi è sempre l’uomo il creatore…il quale comanda alla machina attraverso la parola di eseguire la sua volontà: vietare svelamenti TECNO-ONTOLOGICI è il frutto di una percezione della realtà umanistica fraintesa. Una paura delle macchine priva di senso…
…not a fear of machines, as much as a business model, which the article already points out. Also this is not a question of ontology, but definition and legal terminology about what “making a thing” means. Your point about ontology and ‘revealing’ would make more sense if an AI created out of a vacuum, but it obviously does not.
If I somehow misunderstood your comment then that is most likely because it is in italian, on an english language website I dare say.