{"id":2089188,"date":"2026-08-12T09:18:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T06:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2089188"},"modified":"2026-08-12T09:18:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T06:18:39","slug":"were-trying-to-bet-big-on-human-artistry-spotifys-sam-duboff-talks-ai-initiatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2089188","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re Trying to Bet Big on Human Artistry\u2019: Spotify\u2019s Sam Duboff Talks AI Initiatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tAustralia, despite its reputation as a nation obsessed with rough-and-tumble sports, has produced its share of inventions and leading-edge initiatives in the digital age. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWi-fi technology, the electronic pacemaker, and the black box flight recorder were all developed in the Great Southern Land. Boxed wine \u2014 colloquially known in these parts as \u201cgoon\u201d \u2014 is one of ours, too. In December 2025, Australia became the world\u2019s first country to ban social media for children, implementing groundbreaking laws that block under-16 from such platforms as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Other countries have followed suit.<\/p>\n

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    \n\tAnd just last month, Australia\u2019s prime minister Anthony Albanese committed to strict copyright protections in the AI age, and gave the strongest of assurances that tech companies would not have the right to copyright-protected content, including music, to train AI \u201cwithout the artist\u2019s control.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n\tWith that announcement, the PM also unveiled a new\u00a0Office of AI, which would design the new Australian standards \u2014 essentially a functioning licensing framework built on consent and payment.<\/p>\n

    \n\tThose high-level pledges weren\u2019t lost on Sam Duboff, Spotify\u2019s global head of artists, marketing & policy, the executive who leads the streaming giant\u2019s work on artist policy, streaming transparency and responsible AI, making him one of the business\u2019 most senior voices on the intersection of music, technology and public policy.<\/p>\n

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    \n\tDuboff recently visited Australia to talk with artists and partners in the domestic industry about its own AI protections and initiatives.<\/p>\n

    \n\tAlbanese\u2019s comments feel to be \u201cvery aligned with our approach,\u201d he tells Billboard.<\/em> \u201cFrom what I\u2019ve seen,\u201d Duboff notes, \u201cit feels like the (Australian) government positions are really similar to our approach, which is respect for copyright, and making sure this AI age is helping existing IP holders.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n\tOne of the messages carried during those meetings down under were on Spotify\u2019s AI music products that \u201cwe\u2019ve announced and are planning to build with the industry,\u201d Duboff explains. \u201cThe history of Spotify is all about respect for copyright. Spotify was born 20 years ago out of the plate of piracy and we were able to build a license experience that was, you know, making fans want to pay for music. We see a similar opportunity today where a lot of emerging AI tech platforms are, their focus on music products are competing with artists, or trying to replace artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n\tDuboff continues, \u201cwe think we could build products that respect copyright in partnership with the industry, that power existing artist careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n\tAs Spotify works to increase transparency around AI usage in songs and on artist profiles, it recently announced partnerships with\u00a0Universal Music Group\u00a0(UMG) and\u00a0Merlin\u00a0to allow for AI remixing of songs, effectively allowing users to create AI remixes and covers of songs by participating artists signed to labels under the UMG and Merlin umbrellas. Remixing capabilities will be made available as a paid add-on for premium subscribers.<\/p>\n

    \n\tEarlier this week, the tech business announced the creation of a new label that will be applied to AI-generated artists and begin rolling out in mid-September. Music from artists bearing the label, called \u201cAI Persona,\u201d will not be included in personalized recommendations on the platform.<\/p>\n

    \n\tDuboff points to Spotify\u2019s four core \u201cartist-first\u201d AI principles, coming soon off the back of an announcement that it was\u00a0strengthening its policies\u00a0on negative use cases of AI-generated music.<\/p>\n

    \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re trying to bet big on human artistry. Our belief is, in the AI era, the platform that\u2019s gonna win is the one where listeners can trust what they\u2019re listening to the most. And so, in the same breath that we\u2019re fighting spam and (AI) slop, we\u2019re building these new tools that let artists get verified for being authentic, upload video, share their song DNA, and everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n\tBased in New York, Duboff also leads the teams responsible for many of the music streaming leader\u2019s biggest initiatives for artists, including Spotify for Artists, Loud & Clear, Wrapped for Artists, Countdown Pages, Clips, Campaign Kit and Spotify Charts.<\/p>\n

    \n\tOne Australia-specific initiative that caught his eye was Spotify\u2019s Turn Up Aus Live event series, presented in central Sydney. A throwback to the classic pub gig, the fan-first events are meant to celebrate Aussie artists \u2014 and \u201cshare that local flair\u201d \u2014 at a time when so many are struggling to be seen and heard above the 100-million-plus songs available online at the touch of a screen.<\/p>\n

    \n\tDuring the southern winter, Hooligan Hefs and Genesis Owusu have performed under the Turn Up Aus Live banner at The Bat & Ball in Redfern. \u201cThe success of that is something we\u2019d like to look at for different countries,\u201d he explains. \u201cTurn Up Aus is one of one.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n\tThe live campaign is a phase of a so-called \u201clocal pride\u201d stamp that began 12 months ago, explains Spotify\u2019s Australian and New Zealand head of music, Ben Watts. During that time, the streamer has worked with 500 local artists; produced more than 1,000 billboards locally and abroad; including Times Square, and counted 2,000 fans engaging in the live events and activations.<\/p>\n

    \n\tIn recent years, Australian recording artists have overpowered by North American and European artists in ARIA\u2019s year-end charts and triple j\u2019s Hottest 100 poll, a situation the domestic industry and its partners have been trying to rectify. It won\u2019t be an easy fix.<\/p>\n

    \n\tAs previously reported by Spotify, the Turn Up Aus program is making a difference by generating\u00a0223 million\u00a0more streams of domestic\u00a0music\u00a0in\u00a0Australia\u00a0for 2024-25. \u201cWe\u2019re really happy with that in real numbers,\u201d Watts tells Billboard<\/em>, \u201cand we see this as only the beginning. It\u2019s not just about the streams. It is really about helping the artist build that fandom and that will be ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/spotify-sam-duboff-ai-turn-up-aus-interview\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/spotify-stock-market-billboard-1800.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard Australia, despite its reputation as a nation obsessed with rough-and-tumble sports, has produced its share of inventions and leading-edge initiatives in the digital age. \u00a0 Wi-fi technology, the electronic pacemaker, and the black box flight recorder were all developed in the Great Southern Land. Boxed wine \u2014 colloquially known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2089188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2089188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2089188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2089188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2089188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}