Australian music charts take action: All AI-generated songs are prohibited from ranking and competing for ARIA awards

Whether a song can be on the list now has a popularity test. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) announced that any music work produced entirely by generative AI will be excluded from the official Australian charts. This rule will take effect from this Friday, and its scope of application also covers the qualifications for the ARIA Award.

The rules do not ban AI across the board. According to the ranking code of conduct announced by ARIA, as long as a song is "substantially created by humans" and "does not involve concerns about streaming or chart manipulation," it can still be counted in the rankings even if generative AI is used as an auxiliary tool in the production process. In other words, what is blocked are those "complete AI works" that are generated by AI from beginning to end and distributed under the name, not all music that is touched by AI technology.

Annabelle Herd, CEO of ARIA, said in a statement, "The ARIA rankings must always be a transparent measure of what Australians actually listen to. A ranking that rewards unauthorized AI-generated content will erode the foundation of the recorded music industry we represent." She also called on all players who influence the broadcast and promotion of Australian music, especially the radio industry, to follow suit and adopt similar standards to support human creation.

This policy is not an isolated effort. ARIA’s new regulations echo the recommendations on the use of AI put forward by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in July this year. Last month, major record companies, including Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, also jointly called on various ranking agencies to ban the inclusion of works they called “AI junk content”.