A hit song has been excluded from Sweden’s official chart after it emerged the “artist” behind it was an AI creation.
I Know, You’re Not Mine – or Jag Vet, Du Är Inte Min in Swedish – by a singer called Jacub has been a streaming success in Sweden, topping the Spotify rankings.
However, the Swedish music trade body has excluded the song from the official chart after learning it was AI-generated.
“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,” said an IFPI Sweden spokesperson.
Ludvig Werber, IFPI Sweden’s chief executive, said: “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.”
I Know, You’re Not Mine is an acoustic guitar-led folk-pop song, and the artist’s profile page on Spotify is illustrated by a sketch of a bearded, T-shirt-wearing man. The song has been streamed more than 5m times globally, including 200,000 plays in Sweden. It is part of a six-track EP called Kärleken är Bränd, or Love is Burned.
IFPI Sweden acted after an investigative journalist, Emanuel Karlsten, revealed the song was registered to a Danish music publisher called Stellar and that two of the credited rights holders worked in the company’s AI department.
“What emerges is a picture of a music publisher that wants to experiment with new music and new kinds of artists. Who likes to push the limits of the audience’s tolerance threshold for artificial music and artificial artists,” wrote Karlsten.
In a statement, Stellar said: “The artist Jacub’s voice and parts of the music are generated with the help of AI as a tool in our creative process.”
Stellar said it was “first and foremost” a music company run by creative professionals, not a tech or AI outfit. The company added that creating a hit had required “something different” to simply prompting an AI tool to create a tune.
“We are passionate and experienced music professionals who have invested large amounts of time, energy and dedication in the songwriting and production of this release, and the creation has been a process that has been guided by a clear artistic vision,” said the company.
Stellar said it was against “AI music slop”, the term for mass-produced AI content that is often nonsensical and surreal.
Spotify does not require music to be labelled as AI-generated, but has been cracking down on AI-made spam tracks as every play more than 30 seconds long generates a royalty for the scammer behind it – and dilutes payments to legitimate artists.
Jacub is not the first AI artist to score a hit with audiences. A “band” called the Velvet Sundown amassed more than 1m streams on Spotify last year before it emerged the group was AI-generated, including its promotional images and backstory as well as the music. Its most popular song has now accumulated 4m streams on the platform.
Ed Newton-Rex, a composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, said Jacub’s success underlined the need for mandatory AI labelling.
“If Spotify told users when they were listening to AI music this wouldn’t have made it so high in the charts, taking streams and royalties away from human musicians. Governments must require that AI-generated works be prominently labelled as a matter of urgency,” he said.
Last year Spotify, which is based in Sweden, said it was backing a new industry standard for disclosing the use of AI in creating a track. The product is being developed by a tech and music industry-backed nonprofit called DDEX. Artists’ use of the standard on the platform will be voluntary, said Spotify, and they will not be forced to label music as entirely or partly AI-created.
Spotify has been approached for comment.
