Spotify Purges Tens of Millions of AI Spam Tracks This Year

WHO:

NBC News - Spotify said it removed AI-generated music tracks; the company said its efforts aim to keep human artists from being crowded out.

Rolling Stone Music - Spotify described some tracks as “AI-generated slop or spam” and said it was prioritizing “more music made by authentic, human artists.”

Engadget - Spotify discussed its handling of AI “slop and spam.”

Billboard - Spotify provided an update about “AI Spam.”

Variety - Spotify shared an update about its efforts to curb AI-generated music on the platform.

WHAT:

NBC News - Spotify said it had removed more than 50 million tracks created by AI.

Rolling Stone Music - Spotify said it removed 75 million songs identified as “AI-generated slop or spam.”

Rolling Stone Music - Spotify said an additional 50 million tracks had been filtered from recommendations made to listeners.

Engadget - Spotify said it removed 50 million such tracks from recommendations, but did not necessarily erase them entirely.

Billboard - Spotify said 50 million songs had been removed from recommendations and more than 75 million tracks had been removed from the service altogether.

Variety - Spotify said it removed 50 million AI “slop” tracks from users’ recommendations.

WHY:

NBC News - Spotify said it was working to prevent AI-generated music from crowding out human artists.

Rolling Stone Music - Spotify said it was removing the tracks in favor of “more music made by authentic, human artists.”

Variety - The company described its effort as an attempt to curb the disruption AI-generated music had brought to the platform.

HOW:

Rolling Stone Music - Spotify filtered 50 million tracks from recommendations shown to listeners.

Engadget - Removing tracks from recommendations did not necessarily mean Spotify had wiped them from the service.

Billboard - Spotify distinguished between removing tracks from recommendations and removing tracks from the service altogether.

Variety - Spotify disclosed the recommendation-removal figure in a post on its “For the…” channel; the article excerpt truncates the channel name.

(UPDATED October 21, 2026 00:27 UTC)

Spotify says it has removed more than 75 million AI-generated tracks from its service and filtered another 50 million from listeners’ recommendations. The company described some of the music as “AI-generated slop or spam,” noting that filtering tracks from recommendations does not necessarily erase them from the platform. Spotify says the effort is intended to keep AI-generated music from crowding out human artists and to prioritize music made by people.