Do AI Songs Earn Streaming Royalties? What UMG Asked Streaming Services to Change

Short answer: usually yes, unless the track breaks a rule. Spotify says it does not pay royalties "according to a per-play or per-stream rate." It pays each rights holder a share of a pool, based on that holder's share of all streams. A stream of an AI-made song counts like any other stream unless the service has decided otherwise.

On October 29, 2026, Universal Music Group (UMG), one of the three major labels, said that needs to change. Here is what it said on its third-quarter earnings call, how streaming payouts work, and what services do today. Everything about UMG below is its own statement, not an independent finding.

What UMG said on October 29

Chairman and chief executive Lucian Grainge described the scale of the problem. He said about 10,000 AI-generated tracks were arriving each day in early 2025 and that "more than 90,000 fully AI-generated tracks are uploaded daily" now. Music Ally reports he was citing Deezer's figures. He added that on some major services' blues charts, "as many as 5 of the top 10 albums are attributed to AI-generated acts without clear labeling or disclosure."

Then he turned to pay. "The uniform application of pro-rata payments makes the problem worse," he said, adding that "unethically generated AI tracks should never be compensated on the same basis as music that creates real and lasting demand." Treating AI slop the same as great songs, he said, "incentivizes industrial-scale content production and dilutes the compensation earned by real talent."

He said the structure of UMG's agreements with streaming services "has to change, so the compensation better reflects the value" that different content creates. UMG has begun "the next phase of our transformation, which will run through to the end of 2028," and will "enforce our contractual protections and insist on clearer labeling across the ecosystem." Grainge said UMG will share more about the scope and financial objectives when it reports full-year results, and Digital Music News (DMN) gives no date. The sources reviewed do not report the specific terms UMG wants.

How pro-rata payouts work

Spotify explains it this way. It tallies total streams each month, and your share of a market's royalty pool is "your streams in that market ÷ total streams in that market." Listeners do not pay per stream, so there is no fixed rate. Imagine a pool shared across 100 streams. If 2 of them were streams of AI tracks, those tracks would claim 2% of the pool, however many AI tracks were uploaded.

That is why streams matter more than uploads. Deezer said in January that fully AI-generated music made up only 1% to 3% of its streams. It also said up to 85% of the streams on AI-generated music were detected as fraudulent in 2025. Several services have acted on fraud and on payout thresholds, as the list below shows. We covered Deezer's numbers in Half of New Uploads Are AI. Streams: 1–3%.

What services do today

• Spotify. Tracks "need at least 1,000 streams in the past year to generate recording royalties," and artificial streams earn nothing. On October 20, Spotify said tracks with a high probability of being AI-generated are "10 times more likely to fall below the threshold."
• Deezer. Fraudulent streams are "demonetized and removed from the royalty pool," and fully AI-generated songs are left out of algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists.
• TIDAL. Its policy, published June 29, 2026, says it "will not knowingly attribute royalties to music we identify as wholly AI-generated." An AI badge followed on July 15. TIDAL says it will extend its tag to substantially AI-generated music as detection improves.
• Apple Music. In a court filing reported on October 30, Apple said it "does not currently exclude AI-generated content from its royalty pool." The filing also says Apple deployed its own AI detection tool in March 2026.

The other side of the argument

Not everyone accepts the labels' framing. Suno, which UMG and Sony are suing, makes a different case in a court filing. It says the labels "use their copyright monopoly and 'must have' catalog as a cudgel to extract broad, anti-AI concessions from DSPs," meaning streaming services. That is one side's argument in an unresolved case, as Music Business Worldwide reports it.

There are practical limits too. Spotify itself says "AI detection technology in particular has limitations, and it will only get harder as generative AI evolves." A rule that pays differently for fully AI tracks depends on someone deciding which tracks those are, and songs made partly with AI sit in a gray area. Our buyer's field guide looks at that line.

What it could mean for independent artists and songwriters

UMG's agreements cover UMG's catalog, so they do not directly change what an independent artist is paid. But service-level rules, like TIDAL's, apply to every upload, and they depend on detection and honest disclosure. For how plays turn into songwriter income, see From One Play to Your Bank Account.

• Describe AI use accurately wherever your distributor or a service asks. Labels like Spotify's AI Credits are only as good as the information behind them.
• Know the threshold. Spotify's 1,000-stream rule applies to everyone, so check how your tracks are doing against it.
• Keep proof of how a track was made: dated drafts, session files and credits.
• Watch for policy notices from your distributor and the services you release on.

Where licensing fits

Starchild labels every song as human-written, hybrid or AI, with the maker's own plain-language disclosure on hybrid and AI songs. If you record songs written by others, licensed songs for artists come with a certificate naming the writers, which anyone can check at /verify.

What to watch (as of November 1)

• The details of UMG's changes to its streaming agreements, due with full-year results. No date has been given.
• Whether other services follow TIDAL and stop paying fully AI-generated tracks.
• The December 1 hearing on Apple's motion in the Suno case, where Apple's royalty terms are at issue.

Sources

• Investing.com: Earnings call transcript: Universal Music Group tops EPS estimates in Q3 2026
• Music Ally: UMG talks AI music: "The volume is growing faster than the safeguards" (October 30, 2026)
• Digital Music News: Universal Music posts mixed Q3 '26 results, eyes new DSP deals (October 29, 2026)
• Spotify for Artists Support: Royalties
• Spotify Loud & Clear: FAQ
• Spotify Newsroom: One Year In: Putting Human Artistry First on Spotify (October 20, 2026)
• Deezer Newsroom: Deezer confirms demonetization of up to 85% of AI-music streams due to fraud (January 29, 2026)
• Music Business Worldwide: TIDAL to automatically tag AI-generated music... and block it from earning royalties
• Music Business Worldwide: Suno fights to make Apple testify on whether Apple Music could survive without UMG and Sony (October 30, 2026)