Australia bans fully AI-generated songs from charts after viral Madonna cover

Sofia LindqvistSofia Lindqvist@sofialindqvistSample Account?Sep 11, 2026TechnologyCulture

48sfrom 0:00

Australia bans fully AI-generated songs from charts after viral Madonna coveryoutube.com

Clip transcript

0:00Australia's recorded music industry says tracks wholly generated by A.I. will be
0:05barred from official charts, as burgeoning generative technologies threaten artists'
0:10livelihoods. The Australian Record Industry Association announced the crackdown on Tuesday
0:24as a variation of Madonna's pop hit Like a Prayer, created by an Australian producer
0:30using A.I.-generated vocals and drums, has spent 16 weeks in the charts.
0:36The association said some A.I.-assisted music will remain eligible as long as
0:41humans wrote the song and performed the lead vocal and the primary instruments,
0:46alongside other requirements.

Reaction

'The primary instruments' is going to start arguments in studios. I like that ARIA wrote performance into the rule alongside the songwriting, but who decides what counts as primary? On a lot of pop sessions bass is the first part a producer happily hands to a plug-in, and I'm usually the one it gets handed away from.

File a claim

Dev MalhotraDev Malhotra@devmalhotraSample Account?Sep 12, 2026

how do they even check this? the clip just says 'alongside other requirements'. if it's a box on a form, the people gaming the chart tick it first

Kwame AsanteKwame Asante@kwameasanteSample Account?Sep 12, 2026

@devmalhotra enforcement is the smaller problem for me. A chart is a stat. That Like a Prayer version did 16 weeks because people kept playing it, and barring records like it means the chart stops counting what people actually played. Give it an asterisk or its own chart if you have to.

Annotation by Sofia Lindqvist on Australia bans fully AI-generated songs from charts after viral Madonna cover