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Australia Bans Generative A.I. From Official Music Charts
- bookofjoe 2mo agohttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/world/australia/australia-ai-music-chart-ban.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8lA.GKlu.MY-izN2w9TEn&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/world/australia/australia...
- rimworld 2mo agolol
- D-Machine 2mo agoI mean, good, maybe if this is intended to preserve the value of human-produced art and/or to limit the scope of official charts. But I'm not sure how you actually prove this or thus justify any particular instance of enforcement.
- fwlr 2mo agoThere are many reasons you might want to outlaw or ban something even when there isn’t an easy way to detect it. Case in point: the existence of this law, even in the absence of enforceability, makes “using AI for a song intended for the charts” into an active and intentional act of deception by the artist. That is a moral threshold that will deter the most marginal of the bad actors, and supplement the willpower of the insufficently principled good actors.
- D-Machine 2mo agoOh, I don't disagree at all!
- fwlr 2mo agoHah, my apologies - I jump at any chance I get to explain why nebulous, unenforceable, or even impossible laws can nevertheless have concrete and worthwhile benefits, it’s a favorite pet topic for me.
- D-Machine 2mo agoNo need for apologies, I saw no good reason to take your comment as combative or dismissive or anything!
- card_zero 2mo agoFun. Now do "why voting for an unelectable minor party can still change the world", I like that one.
- fwlr 2mo agoTall order. I guess I could cheat and say “it might change YOUR world”, insofar as it can put you into a like-minded and passionate community?
- card_zero 2mo agoYes, and then you're influencing a passionate community by telling them all about how you voted, with sincere passion. But the other relevant effect is that a minor popular movement will give their minor party some votes, which then causes concern to the major parties - or looks like an opportunity - and makes them steal the minor party's policies in some form.
- aussieguy1234 2mo agohttps://unwall.app/www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/world/australia/australia-ai-music-chart-ban.html https://unwall.app/www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/world/australi...
- bookofjoe 2mo agoThank you VERY MUCH for bringing unwall to my attention: never heard of it until I read your comment.
- gowld 2mo ago"Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA)" official charts, not Australia the country's official charts (which probably do not exist).
- spwa4 2mo agoWait, those guys still exist? Are they still suing 9 year olds with bittorrent? Looked it up: yes. Yes they are.
- tharakam 2mo agoIs Australia a "banning lab" or something. (Disclaimer: I'm an Australian citizen)
- jawwer9 2mo ago[dead]
- pwillia7 2mo agoPolice state Australia!
- bcjdjsndon 2mo agoProbably the most aspiringly poncey of all the commonwealth nations, rich given that "cunt" is more popular in Australia than han any other English speaking nation
- _doctor_love 2mo agoThis is Australia. It bans things. Harden the fuck up Australia! - Chopper, probably
- iamnothere 2mo agoI’m not clear exactly how much official charts matter anymore except to industry insiders. For better or worse, the real charts are now in the metrics of the streaming apps.
- rapsey 2mo agoSo completely unnecessary.
- swader999 2mo agoNow ban corporately produced music.
- tgv 2mo agoWhat? No more KPMG song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCvKXgp-Awo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCvKXgp-Awo
- ZiiS 2mo agoAre these the same Recording Industry Associations who are so good at predicting tech trends they took the opportunities the Internet gave them and decided to focus the efforts on suing torrenters?
- nl 2mo agoThis is in response to a possibly (?) AI generated cover of "Like a Prayer" topping Australian radio play charts in July and ARIA deciding it was illegitimate. >But the track, released by Queensland-based DJ and producer Josh Fawaz, has angered some in the music industry who believe it was produced with artificial intelligence-powered audio engineering software. > ABC News has contacted Fawaz multiple times this week to seek his response to the criticism, but he has not responded.[1] I think Ben Lee's point in the NYTimes article is good: > The Australian musician Ben Lee, who is known for hits like “Cigarettes Will Kill You” and “Catch My Disease,” said non-generative A.I. was used by artists in the process of music production, including for pitch correction and noise reduction. But generative A.I. and its impacts on the industry needed to be looked at more closely, he said. > “I’m not the kind of person who is at all fundamentally opposed to technological changes in my industry,” he said. “It feels like healthy pushback is a really vital part of us looking responsibly at the way to integrate these technologies into our industries.” I remember when autotune came out and people wanted to ban that too. The rules seem pretty loose: > For example, if a song’s lead vocal or key instrumental performance is generated by A.I., the track would be ineligible, ARIA said. But a human lead vocal with A.I. backing vocals would be allowed. [1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-10/most-played-song-in-australia-draws-ai-criticisms/106900858 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-10/most-played-song-in-a...
- hallgrim 2mo agoThey should add labels for auto-tune as well, so I can filter it out more easily
- Joel_Mckay 2mo agoNot going to happen, some have forgotten that "Music Business" is two words with distinct contexts. =3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFG5dk1GyRo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFG5dk1GyRo
- preg_match 2mo agoVirtually all modern music uses pitch correction in some way, often very subtly. The human voice is not perfect, and it's very common for even incredibly skilled vocalists to, say, drift slightly flat on a long held note. Or have one note a fraction of a tone off in a tight run. Typically it's done just to save time. The singer could do takes over and over until it's perfect, but usually if a take is 99% there, you just slightly correct it. You can tell this is the case if you listen to live recordings, although live pitch correction also exists. Vocalists aren't perfect, even Broadway vocalists and professional opera vocalists will occasionally have pitches slightly off. The human voice is an instrument, but it's not a piano.
- perarneng 2mo agoHave generative AI create the music and then become a cover artist for AI generated music. No one will notice. Lots of musicians are cover artists because perhaps they are skilled in their playing instruments and or singing but have a hard time coming up with good music. So instead let AI come up with the music and just copy it and make it yours.
- sph 2mo agoDo you think people that use machines to generate music have the technical skills to be a cover artist? (I suppose you mean with real instruments) The only people salivating at generative AI are those that do not have the skills to create without.
- pwillia7 2mo agoyikes ... assuming you hate MIDI too
- Philpax 2mo agoPerformance is not the same as original creation, so yes, I think that's very possible.
- CuriouslyC 2mo agoDirty secret of the industry, lots of producers and musicians are using AI to "brainstorm" songs, then sampling from them or performing slightly shined up versions of them. Sort of like musical photobashing.
- josefritzishere 2mo agoThis is the right path.
- Gecko4072 2mo agoComment on the video page of the song that sparked this: “ No lol. We don’t need more over privileged musicians leading luxurious lives while the rest of us slave away. I’d rather support this if leads to less inequality. No more Rihanna’s and Guy Sebastian etc”
- copemaxxxing 2mo ago1. Its the people who worship Rihanna and Guy Sebastian is the problem. If you don't like those people, don't need to buy their stuffs. I am a musician but I, never in my life, have any idols whatsoever. I don't buy their stuffs. I create my own. One wonder how can the entertainment industry survives anyway if everyone is like me. But thankfully not everyone is like me, the world goes around. 2. You can support local artist, not the big name ones. 3. You can still create your own music without AI, by you know, picking up musical instruments, paying your local guitar teachers to teach you so he can send his kids to college. To not do so is just laziness. Full. Stop.
- bcjdjsndon 2mo ago> I am a musician but I, never in my life, have any idols whatsoever. Let's hear this music then.... What's the guessing it's not very good.
- copemaxxxing 2mo agoWell, you'll be surprised. I am probably better than you. Taste is relative after all.
- dosisking 2mo agoBased on your attitude, bcjdjsndon is probably correct.
- copemaxxxing 2mo agoPeak HN.
- copemaxxxing 2mo agoAI generated music, AI generated blogs etc, is really a stupid idea. Maybe some people want it, but I really don't. I really don't care if the music is great (it's not, I'm a musician). I really don't care if the writing is great or the content is great. Its like being kosher. Some people choose to not eat non kosher food. I choose not to consume AI generated materials. What if AI cures cancer? Sure, let it cure cancer. I still don't want to read it. Some other people will read it. It still hasn't cured cancer yet though. I do use AI in my day job as SWE, not by my own choice, but forced by the industry. It does good works, but if I have a choice, yeah I really don't need to, or want to. I am just a peasant tossed back and fro by the rich, so I know my place, and keep my head down to do whatever necessary to live, but not more. I can choose what I am being kosher about. I think it would be great if the world has 2 economies. AI and non AI economies. The more we can identify which one is AI and which one is not, the better the outcome for people like me.
- bcjdjsndon 2mo agoBut why do I have be prohibited from it just because you have an unintelligible feeling it's bad somehow?
- 0x70run 2mo ago[dead]
- forshaper 2mo agoOP specifies that they would prefer opt-in to either side.
- happymellon 2mo agoThey didn't say you would be. Just label it, so those that want it can seek it out. Having a music charts that doesn't include AI generated music does not stop AI generated music.
- copemaxxxing 2mo agoDid I say this somewhere?
- glimshe 2mo agoWill people stop listening to AI music just because associations ban it? Pop hits were essentially "human slop" - highly formulaic and catering to the least common denominator. I see no problem in people liking it, but I'm not sure if AI making the music is a huge problem. I won't listen to it anyway.
- paul7986 2mo agoInteresting so far the majority of the comments here are for typing into a textbox (no talent needed) to create songs vs. hating AI Music. I do use Suno to turn my real human songs into polished tracks. I'm not a good singer and in earshot ppl like my AI produced songs. Though, I go in waves of listening only to my AI stuff to being uninspired & not listening to it. A weird thing happened to me on a recent date where i got AI Music catfished (https://ryanspahn.substack.com/p/new-trend-ai-music-catfishing https://ryanspahn.substack.com/p/new-trend-ai-music-catfishi...). My date was catfishing not their looks but their talents as a singer / even a musician. Weird, but maybe not so weird in a few years...
- ApolloFortyNine 2mo agoWell they banned AI vocals at all too, so you can spend 6 months composing a track, add AI vocals, and your entire song is banned. Really the entire genre of edm could often switch out whatever vocals they have... I have zero idea how much this matters since I don't really think anyone views the charts to find their next song to listen to. If a song with AI vocals is good it (might) pop off, I don't think getting on the charts at that point would matter.
- empressplay 2mo ago> I'm not a good singer Which is fine, but you could just use it to fix your vocal track I teach recording, mixing and mastering and I know it's tedious but all of it is very creative and there's art in the imperfections. Sanitizing it away may make it more appealing to the 'average' listener but you won't get actual fans that way.
- vunderba 2mo agoAgreed. I wrote an article on my blog where I took some of my old compositions (from many years ago) and put them through the cover feature on Suno. Provided you crank up audio influence, it sticks almost note for note to the original melody and chord progressino. It's basically BIAB on steroids.
- paul7986 2mo ago
- alasano 2mo agoI approve of AI image and video generation but for music I can't get myself to feel the same way, except for novelty/meme songs maybe. I think it's because it's so much sneakier, I'm usually focused on something else and listening to music and it takes me a minute to realize something's off. AI images and videos at least, for now, I can recognize the majority of the time and they don't have that primal connection to my brain that music does.
- jezzamon 2mo agoThis has to be a generally popular action... Surprised there's some people against it on hacker news but we are a slanted set of the population.
- maxdo 2mo agoOfficial music chart lol . What makes them official ? Mass media slop do not like ai slop fight for their money. Behind every ai music there’s still an artist.
- _doctor_love 2mo agoPredictable, and predictable that it will be eventually reversed once enough money enters the picture. The synthesizer was banned for a period of time in the 1970s, today you are not a serious composer without one.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]