Music market Bandcamp bypasses AI disclosures and obtuse insurance policies to announce a wholesale ban on AI slop
One of many web’s largest music marketplaces has banned content material “that’s generated wholly or in substantial half by AI”. Bandcamp introduced the brand new coverage at the moment, which additionally prohibits using AI instruments designed to “impersonate different artists or types”.
Listed here are the rules, straight from Bandcamp:
- Music and audio that’s generated wholly or in substantial half by AI will not be permitted on Bandcamp.
- Any use of AI instruments to impersonate different artists or types is strictly prohibited in accordance with our current insurance policies prohibiting impersonation and mental property infringement.
The announcement comes after a surge in terrible AI-generated music acts final yr. Essentially the most notorious was in all probability The Velvet Sunset: at its peak the non-existent psych-rock four-piece was attracting 500,000 month-to-month listeners, however now usually solely attracts round 160,000. Thoughts you, that’s nonetheless a heck of loads, particularly for music so bland it sounds unmistakably like AI (although the identical might have been mentioned for Wolfmother in 2005, had generative AI existed again then).
Bandcamp is not a subscription streaming service like Spotify or Apple Music, however it’s price evaluating insurance policies. Spotify is lenient in the case of AI-generated music, although it has introduced it is engaged on AI disclosures for music—in all probability one thing like Steam’s necessary AI disclosures, although with “industry-standard credit”. Apple Music has been much less clear, although like Spotify and Bandcamp, it unambiguously forbids AI-generated impersonations.
It is a welcome and daring transfer on Bandcamp’s half, although I am certain it will not be lengthy earlier than the “wholly or in substantial half” clause is examined. Spotify is usually criticized for its ruthlessly low royalty payouts and algorithmic sleights of hand, however it’s additionally horrible as a result of it is flooded with irredeemable AI filler, to not point out the manufacturing corporations it reportedly makes use of to fill its playlists with muzak, all the higher to dampen its already-miserly royalty payouts to precise artists. (It is a unhealthy firm and a nasty service and I feel you must cease utilizing it).
Bandcamp managed to flee a short stint beneath Epic Video games in 2023, and it is in all probability for one of the best, as a result of its insurance policies won’t be well-received by Epic boss Tim Sweeney. Final week Sweeney dismissed the necessity for AI disclosures, and in November, defended using AI-generated voices in Arc Raiders.
As Tyler Wilde put it final week, it is not bizarre to need AI disclosures on video games. As for AI use generally, Mollie Taylor places it bluntly: It is extra vital than ever to name out builders for egregious AI utilization if we wish videogames to stay fascinating.