The tsunami of AI slop on digital streaming platforms has become a force to be reckoned with, and Apple Music is the latest service to head for higher ground with a new AI policy. In a newsletter distributed to its industry partners this morning and first reported by Music Business Worldwide, the platform confirmed that it has launched a new metadata disclosure feature that it’s termed Transparency Tags.

Transparency Tags will give record labels and distributors the ability to flag when songs uploaded to the service have used generative AI for “a material portion” of any one of four creative elements: the track, the lyrics, the cover artwork, and the music video. Multiple of these tags can be applied simultaneously and will be “similar to genres, credits, and other metadata” in that they’re determined entirely by the uploader and, at least for now, optional.

“Proper tagging of content is the first step in giving the music industry the data and tools needed to develop thoughtful policies around AI,” Apple disclosed in the newsletter, “and we believe labels and distributors must take an active role in reporting when the content they deliver is created using AI.”

It’s a start. Apple Music’s decision to rely on AI identification upstream, rather than creating its own tools, stands out from the nascent policies of its competitors. In January, Bandcamp outright banned completely AI-generated music from its platform and called on its community of listeners to report uploads that appear to be in violation for review by the support team. Last September, Spotify announced new measures to crack down on “slop,” including similar AI disclosures in song credits, a strengthened impersonation policy and a new spam filter for its recommendation algorithm, noting that in the past 12 months, the platform had removed more than 75 million spammy tracks.

French music streaming service Deezer is currently leading the charge with its own platform-level AI-detection technology, capable of identifying and removing 100% AI-generated music from generative tools like Suno and Udio. In January, the platform estimated that 60,000 completely AI-generated songs were being uploaded every day, accounting for more than 39% of total daily uploads. The same report detailed that as much as 85% of all streams on AI-generated music were fraudulent in 2025, and the detection tool enabled the platform to remove those streams from its royalty pool.