Tagesschau Reports on AI Bands, Labelling and the Copyright Dispute
The Tagesschau shows how AI-generated music is flooding streaming services and why platforms are now introducing labels. The interview covers GEMA's legal victory against Suno, AI bands such as The Velvet Sundown, and the question of what music without a human creative process still is.
Die Tagesschau (16 October 2026) devotes a dedicated report to AI music. It brings together several developments that show how far generative AI has advanced into the music world:
AI invents artists complete with biographies. The example is The Velvet Sundown, a band that does not exist: its songs, images and videos were produced by AI. The band itself describes this as an artistic provocation.
Platforms respond with labelling. Spotify marks AI artist identities as “AI Persona”, Apple requires a self-declaration, and YouTube plans to label AI-generated music videos in the future. The musicologist Markus Henrik (“Dr. Pop”) considers this the right step and welcomes the exclusion of AI music from the charts.
Copyright is under negotiation. Henrik points to GEMA’s lawsuit against Suno in Munich: Suno would have to disclose how AI music is created, and creators whose works are used would have to be compensated.
Tool or replacement? A duo featured in the report uses AI only sparingly in the studio (for example for pitch correction and stem splitting) and not creatively. As a counterexample, Henrik cites the new Beatles song, in which AI isolated Lennon’s voice from a demo cassette.
Notably, the report also presents a counter-narrative: live concerts, handmade music and the creative process itself are seen as things AI cannot replace.
Sources
This indication by Benedikt Brünner is licensed under
CC BY 4.0
Comments 0
Comments are moderated. New comments appear after review by the editors.
No comments yet.