Earlier this week, Spotify announced that Paris-based Believe had joined Universal Music Group, Merlin and Kobalt to agree to license its music catalog for use by Spotify’s AI remixing tool. Spotify’s co-CEOs said it will take time to release the new tool – not least of all because it relies on artists’ consent. But once launched, the platform’s models will allow fans to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs from participating artists and songwriters.
“Even beyond [these companies], we have broad-based support,” Spotify co-CEO Alex Norström tells Billboard. “I can’t speak for our label partners or publishing partners, but you know, there’s a lot of conversations being had with artists, rights holders, songwriters across the industry, and it’s moving in the right direction and excitement is gaining.”
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In announcing the partnership this week, Believe and its digital distributor TuneCore echoed Spotify’s “three C’s” approach: first, securing artists’ and songwriters’ consent to have their music included; second, crediting them on related works; and third, compensating them from the royalty pool funded by the new AI remixing service.
Customers who want to use the tool will be able to pay for the service as an add-on. Spotify’s co-CEOs declined to comment on pricing, except to say the tool will provide new revenue for the industry and creators.
“This is a way for artists to participate in AI rather than just focusing on net new music being created,” says Spotify co-CEO Gustav Söderström. “And, if you think about that royalty pool, Spotify is the biggest one. We think we’re the right company to do this.”
Spotify added 6 million net new subscribers in the third quarter, 1 million more than guidance, for a total of 316 million premium subscribers, up from 71 million subscribers when it went public in 2018. Since its founding 20 years ago, Spotify has paid out $70 billion to music industry rights holders.
Also this week, Spotify provided an update on songs it described as “AI-spam” that were removed from the platform. The company said more than 50 million songs had been removed from recommendations, and that those songs were in addition to more than 75 million tracks that have been removed from the service since it tightened its AI policies in September 2025. Spotify says it’s using several tools to identify these types of songs, including upload patterns, metadata, third-party AI detection tools and listener engagement and feedback.
