Bandcamp has banned all music made with AI

Bandcamp

Bandcamp has officially banned AI music from its platform.

The announcement was made yesterday (January 13), with the site stating that it was struck by “the sheer quantity of human creativity and passion that artists express on Bandcamp every single day.”

It went on to say the fact it is “home to such a vibrant community of real people making incredible music is something we want to protect and maintain”.

As a result, Bandcamp has enforced an outright ban on music made with AI, stating that music and audio that is generated wholly or in substantial part by AI is not permitted on Bandcamp.

It also said that any use of AI tools to impersonate other artists or styles is “strictly prohibited in accordance with our existing policies prohibiting impersonation and intellectual property infringement.”

Bandcamp added: “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. We reserve the right to remove any music on suspicion of being AI generated.”

The use of AI has been a source of controversy in music, with streaming service Deezer revealing last July that 28 per cent of music added to its platform is fully AI-generated.

Last month, Jorja Smith’s record label hit out at an AI track that “cloned” her voice, remarking: “We cannot allow this to become the new normal,” and a new campaign called Spotify Unwrapped launched, called for users to boycott the streaming giant over AI music among other issues.

It also comes after King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard recently hit out at their apparent AI replacement on Spotify, claiming that “we are truly doomed”.

Last July, the band announced that they were pulling all of their music from the streaming platform due to their opposition to the company’s founder Daniel Ek funding the Helsing corporation.

Since their withdrawal, a group of songs have been uploaded to a Spotify page named King Lizard Wizard, with some believing they have been AI-generated. King Gizzard frontman Stu Mackenzie is credited as the composer on the tracks.

In a response to their alleged AI replacement, Mackenzie told The Music at the time: “Trying to see the irony in this situation. But seriously wtf we are truly doomed”

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