Tidal Just Cut Off Royalties for AI-Generated Music. It’s the Most Aggressive Platform Policy Yet.

Tidal published a formal AI policy on Monday (June 29) that immediately strips fully AI-generated music of its ability to earn royalties on the platform, makes it ineligible for direct-to-fan sales, and beginning July 15, tags every track it identifies as 100% AI-generated with a visible “AI” badge so listeners can see exactly what they are hearing. The Block-owned streaming service will also use automated tools to remove AI-generated music that impersonates artists or is linked to fraud. Tidal is not banning AI music outright: the policy explicitly states the platform “will accept AI-generated music,” but it will not pay out on anything it determines to be wholly synthetic. “TIDAL’s priority is ensuring royalties go to original works directly produced, written, and performed by people,” the company stated. “We will therefore not knowingly attribute royalties to music we identify as wholly AI-generated.”

The demonetization mechanism is what separates Tidal’s policy from everything the rest of the industry has done so far. Deezer built platform-level detection technology and has been tagging and blocking AI-generated tracks from recommendations since June 2025, but does not explicitly demonetize content it identifies as synthetic. Spotify launched an AI Credits beta in April that relies on voluntary artist disclosure through labels and distributors, meaning it only surfaces AI use when the creator chooses to flag it. Apple Music’s Transparency Tags system similarly depends on self-reporting. Qobuz announced its own detection system in February and removes AI-generated content from recommendations, but has not published a formal royalty policy. Tidal is the first major streaming platform to make demonetization the primary enforcement tool, targeting the financial incentive that drives the flood of synthetic uploads rather than simply labeling or hiding the content after it arrives.

Tony Gervino, Tidal’s Executive Vice President and Editor-in-Chief, framed the policy as a direct response to what is already happening in the platform’s upload queue. “Our inboxes, and your world, we’re assuming, are inundated with music that is created completely AI-generated and impersonating existing artists purely for financial gain,” he wrote. “Regardless of what you are reading elsewhere, AI’s takeover of the music industry isn’t inevitable if we take even greater steps now to monitor and control it.” The policy covers Tidal’s full catalog including its Tidal Upload tool for independent artists, which means AI-generated tracks uploaded directly by indie creators face the same demonetization and tagging standards as major label content. Tidal describes the policy as “a living document” it will update as detection methods and licensing models evolve.