The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) announced that songs and albums created entirely with artificial intelligence will not be eligible for the official charts from Friday. The decision follows an AI cover of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” rising to the top of the charts. While supporting uses such as recording cleanup, vocal editing and mastering will be permitted, tracks whose vocals, instruments and lyrics are created entirely with AI will be disqualified.
Why it matters
The decision ties chart eligibility not only to a track’s final sound quality but also to how its vocals, instruments and lyrics were produced. This establishes an official distinction between AI’s auxiliary roles, such as recording cleanup, vocal editing and mastering, and generating all of a work’s creative elements. This distinction may require artists and producers seeking chart eligibility to document their production processes or assess the role of the tools they use more explicitly. However, how the boundary between elements created entirely with AI and limited technical support will be monitored, and according to which criteria hybrid productions will be assessed, remains unclear. The AI cover of Madonna’s song also shows that this rule may apply not only to new compositions but also to reinterpretations of existing works.