Australia bars fully AI-generated tracks from official music charts

Australia's recorded music industry is drawing a line on artificial intelligence. From next Monday, tracks created entirely by AI will be excluded from the country's official music charts, a move aimed at safeguarding the livelihoods of human artists.

The decision by the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) follows the unexpected success of an AI-generated reimagining of Madonna's "Like a Prayer." That track, produced by an Australian with AI vocals and drums, has spent 16 weeks in the national top 20 and peaked at number two in May.

Under the new rules, a song will only qualify for the charts if humans wrote it and performed the lead vocals and primary instruments. Music made with unlicensed AI tools will also be disqualified, as will fully AI-generated work for ARIA's annual awards.

ARIA chief executive Annabelle Herd said the changes are meant to keep the charts a transparent measure of what Australians listen to while reinforcing the value of human creativity. "A chart that rewards unlicensed AI output would undercut the very basis of the recorded music we exist to represent," she said.

The move aligns with international principles released in July by the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which state that chart-eligible tracks must be "substantially human made."

Composer and lecturer Alexis Weaver of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music called the decision a "wonderful step forward." She acknowledged that avoiding AI tools entirely is difficult but said they can be used responsibly. "There is a way to use it while you're still steering the ship and making the main creative choices," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.