Latest stories

Spotify reported 788 million monthly active users and nearly €5 billion, or about $5.6 billion, in third-quarter revenue. Co-CEO Gustav Söderström said the company is positioning itself as a media service that AI agents can use to find and deliver music, podcasts and audiobooks. Spotify has integrated with Meta’s Muse assistant, ChatGPT and Claude, and Söderström said adoption within those agents has been strong. Söderström said listeners could ask an AI assistant to select music for a run, find a podcast related to an ongoing AI conversation or resume an audiobook. He described Spotify as an agent that can be accessed through its app or another agent, with capabilities including reviewing listening histories back to 2008, identifying favorites, adjusting track speeds, sorting songs by key and BPM, and mixing a running playlist to a listener’s cadence. Spotify uses its own listening data, including repeat plays, skips and discoveries, to personalize recommendations. Söderström said Spotify does not send listener data to outside AI partners; agents submit requests to Spotify, whose systems process the requests and select content. Amazon has blocked Meta’s Muse from shopping on its platform, demonstrating that third-party agent access can face restrictions over security, privacy and commercial control.

Spotify is adding a 'Verified' badge to help users identify human artists, distinguishing them from AI-generated content. The badge will feature 'Verified by Spotify' text and a green checkmark for artists who meet specific authenticity criteria, such as linked social accounts and consistent listener activity.

Deezer reports that 44% of songs uploaded daily to its platform are AI-generated, with nearly 75,000 AI-generated tracks uploaded each day. Despite this surge, consumption of AI-generated music remains low at 1-3% of total streams, with 85% of these streams identified as fraudulent and demonetized.