YouTube Music announced on Wednesday that it will roll out a new labeling system designed to make the presence of generative artificial intelligence in songs visible to listeners. The label will appear directly on the player page, and a click will reveal additional information about how AI contributed to the track’s composition or vocals. The initiative aims to improve transparency as AI-generated music proliferates across streaming services.
The system uses three designations that partners can apply to their releases: “Fully Gen AI,” “Partly Gen AI,” and “No Gen AI.” A “Fully Gen AI” tag indicates the entire track was created by artificial intelligence, while “Partly Gen AI” denotes a hybrid work where artists have added live elements to AI-generated components. Tracks edited with pitch-correction tools such as Auto-Tune fall under the “No Gen AI” category.
YouTube developed its own detection tools and worked with a range of music partners to identify AI-generated content. Partners using the platform can declare the AI involvement of their releases through the three labels, which then appear on the player interface. The clickable label supplies listeners with a breakdown of the specific role AI played, whether in songwriting, vocal synthesis, or other production stages.
The new labels arrive amid a broader industry push for AI transparency. Apple Music has signaled plans to add “Made With AI” tags as part of its AI Transparency Tags later this year, while Spotify already employs AI labels and operates a music-spam filter. Deezer and TIDAL have taken stricter stances, labeling fully AI-generated recordings and removing them from recommendation engines and royalty calculations.
Deezer reported in July that it receives nearly 90,000 fully AI-generated tracks each day. The service tags these recordings, excludes them from algorithmic playlists and editorial selections, and withholds royalties from streams deemed fraudulent. Deezer is also developing a user-controlled filter that would let subscribers hide AI-generated music from their personal libraries.
Unlike platforms that block AI content, YouTube Music emphasizes disclosure over restriction. AI involvement does not automatically disqualify a track from monetization, and creators can still earn revenue from labeled songs. The company also runs an experimental tool called Dream Track, which enables a select group of creators to produce soundtracks that feature AI-generated renditions of participating artists’ voices.