In a surprising move, a popular song that has amassed millions of streams on Spotify has been barred from Sweden’s official music charts due to its artificial intelligence (AI) origins. The folk-pop creation, titled “I know, You’re Not Mine” (or “Jag vet, du är inte min” in Swedish), has been a breakout hit in the country, topping the Spotify playlist of Sweden’s most-played songs.
However, after an investigation by journalists, it was revealed that the artist behind the track, known as “Jacub,” is not a real person but rather a digital creation generated by AI. This discovery has led the Swedish music industry body, IFPI Sweden, to block the song from appearing on the country’s official national charts.
“Our rule is that if it is a song that is mainly AI-generated, it does not have the right to be on the top list,” explained Ludvig Werner, the head of IFPI.
The producers behind Jacub, who call themselves “Team Jacub,” have defended their creative process, arguing that AI was merely a “tool” or “assisting instrument” within a “human-controlled creative process.” They insist that the five million Spotify streams the song has amassed are proof of its “long-term artistic value.”
However, this response has not satisfied the Swedish music industry, which is positioning itself as a global laboratory for the AI economy. Concerns have been raised that the rise of AI-generated music could potentially cut revenues for the country’s music creators by up to a quarter within the next two years.
In response, Sweden’s music rights society, STIM, launched a licensing system last September, allowing tech firms to legally train their AI models on copyrighted works in exchange for royalty payments. This framework has been described as “the world’s first collective AI licence,” aimed at embracing the disruptive potential of AI while “not undermining human creativity.”
The decision to ban Jacub’s song from the Swedish charts is a tougher stance than the approach taken by international organizations like Billboard, which have allowed AI-generated tracks to feature in some of their specialist charts. However, platforms like Bandcamp have taken a stricter position, prohibiting music that is “generated wholly or in substantial part by AI.”
As the music industry grapples with the implications of AI-generated content, the controversy surrounding Jacub’s song in Sweden suggests that for now, at least, it is human musicians, not machines, who still call the tune.
