Fully AI-generated music to be banned from Australia’s ARIA music charts

Music will need to be “substantially human made” in order to qualify for Australia’s main music chart, in an industry bid to stamp out AI-generated tracks.

Songs wholly generated using artificial intelligence will no longer be eligible for the ARIA charts from Friday, in an update to The Australian Recording Industry Association’s code of practice.

ARIA chief executive Annabelle Herd said a chart that rewards unlicensed AI output would “undercut the very basis of the recorded music we exist to present”.

“The ARIA charts are about tracking consumption and sales of music in Australia, but they’re also about celebrating human artistry and success,” Herd told ABC radio.

“We’re not particularly interested in including AI-generated music as part of that process, particularly when it’s taking up a spot from an Australian artist in the chart.”

AI-assisted songs will still feature on the charts, but they must be substantially human made and raise no stream or chart manipulation concerns.

“I’m sure that there are a lot of artists that are using AI tools to enhance creativity, to do really cool, new, exciting things,” Herd said.

“Artists have always been at the forefront of new tech ...it’s made some of the best music ever created, and no doubt AI will create some really exciting evolution of that.”

Songs on the ARIA charts that use AI include Gold Coast based DJ and producer Josh Fawaz’s dance track Like A Prayer, which is fourth on the ARIA’s top 20 Australian singles after peaking at number two in May.

A dance cover of Madonna’s 1989 hit, generative AI is credited for the drums and vocals on the track, according to Spotify.

Australian electronic band Peking Duk supported the association’s call to outlaw generative AI from the charts, claiming it was “removing the human experience from life”.

“AI is using our stuff. It’s using a lot of our peers’ stuff, you know, people we know,” band member Adam Hyde told breakfast show, Today .

“There is so much good art in Australia and something like AI coming along and kind of sweeping the charts and all that jazz, it’s like, get it out.”

ARIA’s decision heeds global AI principles drawn up by the record industry’s peak body, The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, in July.