Bandcamp becomes the first major music platform to ban AI content
Bandcamp has built its entire brand serving artists. And, with artists’ fury over AI growing every day, it’s no surprise that the company has decided to take a stand against the technology. In a post on Reddit, Bandcamp announced that AI-generated content would not be allowed on the platform and would be subject to removal.
The guidelines leave little room for interpretation. In the post, the company states that “music and audio generated entirely or largely by AI are not allowed on Bandcamp.” It also prohibits using AI tools to impersonate other artists or styles, similar to a rule Spotify implemented in September. The support team also encourages users to use the site’s reporting tool to report any music that “appears to be entirely or heavily reliant on generative AI.”
In the thread, Bandcamp Support also directed people to the company’s Acceptable Use and Moderation Policy page, which includes an explicit ban on removing content or using audio uploaded to Bandcamp to train the AI. It states that users agree to “not train any machine learning or AI models using content from our site or otherwise ingest data or content from the Bandcamp Platform into any machine learning or AI model.”
Other platforms, like Spotify and Deezer, have taken a much more conservative approach to combating AI-generated content, focusing primarily on imitation or relying on labels rather than bans. iHeartRadio pledged to never stream AI-generated music or use AI DJs in late November. But Bandcamp is the first major music platform to completely ban AI-generated content.
