Bandcamp, the popular indie music distribution platform, said this week that it’s banning AI music, marking one of the first platforms to take such a stance in the music industry.
“The fact that Bandcamp is home to such a vibrant community of real people making incredible music is something we want to protect and maintain,” the company said in a note to its users on Reddit on Tuesday. “Today, in line with that goal, we’re articulating our policy on generative AI. We want musicians to keep making music, and for fans to have confidence that the music they find on Bandcamp was created by humans.”
Therefore, Bandcamp said, “music and audio that is generated wholly or in substantial part by AI is not permitted,” on the platform.
“If you encounter music or audio that appears to be made entirely or with heavy reliance on generative AI, please use our reporting tools to flag the content for review by our team,” Bandcamp said. “We reserve the right to remove any music on suspicion of being AI generated.”
Bandcamp’s decision comes as AI music continues to proliferate across the music ecosystem. Deezer, a music streaming service based out of France, said in November that it estimates about 50,000 AI-generated songs are uploaded to the platform every day. Last week, per Sherwood News, Morgan Stanley published a survey that found 60 percent of 18-29 year olds said they listen to AI music, averaging at about three hours per week. (The study didn’t specify the genre of AI music, making it unclear if those surveyed were listening to AI generated background music or white noise, or more typical pop music.)
Aside from Bandcamp, other music platforms have been updating their AI policies as well. iHeart took a similar stance late last year, president of national programming Tom Poleman saying in a note to staff in November that “we don’t play AI music that features synthetic vocalists pretending to be human.”
Spotify announced changes to its AI music policies in September, noting that songs with AI voice clones impersonating other artists are only allowed on the platform if the original performer approves. Spotify said at the time that it had removed over 75 million “spammy” songs from the platform in the past year.
While Spotify’s new AI policies curb AI, they certainly don’t outright stop their existence on the platform. As of this story’s publication Wednesday, THR was able to identify at least six songs from suspected AI acts on Spotify’s Viral 50 U.S. chart. Three of those are from AI R&B act Sienna Rose, with the song “Into the Blue” currently sitting at Number Five. Selena Gomez had inadvertently got caught up in the crossfire this week after she used a Sienna Rose song in an Instagram post about the Golden Globes. Presumably, she wasn’t aware about the AI speculation surrounding the artist.
Also in the Spotify Viral 50 today were two songs from Breaking Rust, an AI act that had generated headlines last year after the song “Walk My Walk” had topped Billboard’s Country Digital Songs chart. (It should be noted, however, that it took only about 2,500 sales for the song to top that chart. Digital sales are a shrinking metric in today’s music industry as few people purchase songs on platforms like iTunes anymore.) Breaking Rust also had over 50 million streams last year, according to Luminate’s 2025 year-end report released Wednesday.
How frequently, if at all, AI music has been showing up on Bandcamp’s platform isn’t quite clear given that it’s likely much more difficult for AI creators to get Bandcamp’s user base of devout music fans to buy AI tracks than it is to get a more casual Spotify listener to stream a song. Still, it draws a line in the sand for Bandcamp’s values, which will please its indie musician community.
Even as these AI-generated tracks rack up more streams, still unknown is how much users want to listen to these types of songs, or if they care where they come from at all. On Wednesday, Luminate said that 45 percent of listeners the company surveyed for its year-end report “expressed discomfort with AI being used for original compositions,” with Luminate CEO Rob Jonas saying in the report that “a significant portion of listeners are still looking for that irreplaceable human spark.”
“Moving forward, the debate won’t be just about when AI artists reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 but also whether audiences will grant them the same cultural permission we give to human creators,” Jonas wrote. “Protecting the inherent value of human creation in a world of infinite content is our industry’s most vital challenge.”
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