Songs created by AI banned from Australia's music charts

[George98]

The Australian Recording Industry Association has banned wholly AI generated tracks from the ARIA Charts starting this week, updating its Charts Code of Practice specifically to protect what CEO Annabelle Herd called the human nature of artistry. Under the new rules, a recording is only eligible if humans wrote the song and performed the lead vocal and the primary instruments, meaning AI can still play a supporting role in production without disqualifying a track, but wholesale AI generated songs are now excluded entirely.

The move follows a specific controversy that made the issue impossible to ignore. A cover of Madonna's Like a Prayer, produced by Queensland DJ Josh Fawaz using AI generated vocals and drums, spent 16 weeks in the Australian top 20, peaking at number two on the ARIA singles chart in May and becoming the most played track on Australian radio at one point in July. That a track built substantially on AI vocals could climb that high without most listeners realizing it was AI generated is what pushed ARIA to actually formalize a rule rather than continuing to handle the issue case by case.

Eligibility also now depends on the AI tools used being legally licensed rather than trained on unauthorized data. Herd was explicit about the reasoning behind that requirement, arguing an artist's creative work is their property and that no company should be able to use Australian music, books, art, or news to train AI systems without the original artist's control or consent. AI generated recordings will also be ineligible for ARIA's annual music awards under the same updated code.

The new rules align Australia with labeling principles the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry released back in July, distinguishing between tracks labeled AI Generated and those labeled AI Assisted depending on how much human involvement actually went into the writing and recording process. Herd framed the change as ARIA trying to stay dynamic in a rapidly evolving space while drawing a clear enough line that everyone releasing music in Australia now has an actual standard to work against, and she specifically called on radio broadcasters to adopt similar rules of their own rather than leaving chart eligibility as the only real gatekeeper

Songs created by AI banned from Australia's music chartswww.bbc.co.uk