Spotify’s relationship with AI feels as though it has become increasingly— for want of a better phrase—a slightly edgy one. The company is, first and foremost, a tech company rather than an arts company. Daniel Ek was a coder before anything else and has always taken the company in a direction that favors innovation. On the other hand, Spotify is passionate about working with creative people—nowhere more so than when it comes to writers.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
Of course, one reason Spotify may be so keen to court indie authors more than publishers is its rather checkered and bruising history of dealing with large rights-holding companies in the music industry.
This tension feels like a microcosm of the wider AI–creator debate. Most recently, it played out in a wave of panic when Spotify announced a change in its terms and conditions that would allow uploaded content to be accessed by its own AI platform. Creators voiced outrage until Spotify clarified that it was referring to content such as playlist covers uploaded by listeners, not artists.
Spotify Clarifies ChatGPT Connection
Now, Spotify has announced a link with ChatGPT. The way it works is simple: when you mention Spotify in ChatGPT, you’ll be prompted to connect your accounts. This will allow ChatGPT to use your Spotify data to create playlists and other personalized content.
More interesting than the feature itself is the way Spotify announced it. In its official statement, a full paragraph is devoted to reassuring creators that their content remains protected:
“You can connect or disconnect at any time. Throughout the experience, artists’ and creators’ work stays protected. Spotify will not share music, podcasts, or any other audio or video content on our platform with OpenAI for training purposes.”
Clearly, Spotify has learned that such assurances are necessary.
Sora and the Growing AI Video Debate
On the subject of ChatGPT, Sora—the video-generating app from ChatGPT’s creators, OpenAI—has just been released in app form, surpassing one million downloads in its first five days and beating ChatGPT to that milestone.
The flood of AI-generated videos that followed has received a mixed response. Deepfake videos of Robin Williams, in particular, have drawn strong criticism from his daughter, Zelda Williams.
Against this backdrop, the world’s biggest YouTube star, MrBeast, has been vocal about the threat AI video creation poses to YouTube creators—both in terms of potential redundancy for human creators and the use of copyrighted material.
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