Spotify's new 'Verified' badge confirms musicians like Taylor Swift, Drake aren't AI

" young euphony fri" mightiness seem a little different when you open your Spotify app.

The audio streaming giant has rolled out a new "Verified by Spotify" badge, in a bid to show which artists aren't AI.

Artificial intelligence-generated music has proliferated on the platform, racking up millions of streams.

But the Swedish company, in a post on its website Thursday, says its green badge, with a check mark, is meant to help distinguish authentic and trusted artists from AI-generated or AI-persona accounts.

According to the criteria on Spotify's website, artists who receive the badge will have to meet a threshold by having "consistent listener activity and engagement over time." Spotify says it will also "look for an identifiable presence both on and off-platform."

That could include linked social media accounts, live performance dates and merchandise sales.

The company says it's also taking into consideration artists who have "made important contributions to music culture and history as well as those building cultural momentum and relevance."

Andrew Cash, president and CEO of the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA), says it was "inevitable" that there would be some form of label to delineate what's AI-generated and what's not. He believes it's something artists and fans alike have wanted.

At the same time, he's concerned that criteria Spotify has established could put more hurdles in the way of new and independent artists trying to reach broader audiences.

A quick scroll of the Spotify app will reveal superstars like Madonna, BTS and Bad Bunny are among the many music stars whose profiles now have the green badge.

That also includes Canadian artists such as rock group The Beaches, the 2026 Juno Awards' breakthrough artist of the year Cameron Whitcomb and Polaris Prize-winning Indigenous musician Jeremy Dutcher.

A range of other notable artists remain badgeless, including Canadian folk music great Joni Mitchell, late crooner Roy Orbison, Latin music legend Celia Cruz, classical composers like Richard Wagner and George Frederic Handel — though Ludwig van Beethoven and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky are verified — and R&B singer and convicted sex offender R. Kelly.

Spotify's criteria states that artists who haven't yet received a badge may still receive one in the future, that the initial rollout will happen over the coming weeks and that it will continue on a rolling basis.

As of Friday, badges also did not appear alongside highly popular podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience, Smartless or Good Hang with Amy Poehler.

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It's not the first online platform to turn to a verification system in an attempt to protect the integrity of real people.

Many social media platforms have their own form of verification badges, including Elon Musk-owned X and Meta's Instagram and Facebook.

Each of these platforms initially offered its own verification badges to people with a public persona, including politicians, celebrities, official agencies, media outlets and journalists, as well as users who had developed a substantial following.

Over time, each of those platforms monetized its badges, allowing anyone to purchase verification through a monthly subscription, though eligibility requirements vary.

But Cash believes there could be a different cost to Spotify's verification plan when it comes to smaller, independent artists who "already have the chip stacked against them" and it's something he says CIMA is closely watching.

"The badge clearly, in this instance, is meaning more than just that your music is human generated," he said.

He's concerned Spotify's "arbitrary" 10,000 active monthly listener threshold could also be an "attempt to further cull" smaller artists from the platform.

Spotify says its new verification is still evolving and that some of its approaches could change — including guidelines that, at present, don't allow for AI-generated work to be eligible for review or approval.

Meanwhile, other platforms have taken different approaches to help subscribers determine what music may have been generated using AI.

Apple Music introduced "transparency tags" earlier this year to alert users to AI-generated music and artwork.

France-based Deezer recently offered its nearly 10 million subscribers the option to filter AI music from their feeds.

Some artists have also begun taking their own steps to protect their music, likenesses and even their voices.

Pop superstar Taylor Swift filed three trademark applications last month in an attempt to prevent misuse of her voice and image through artificial intelligence.

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Senior Writer

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