Spotify AI Tag

2025

Speculative Work

Music streaming platforms, like Spotify, are increasingly being flooded by AI generated music. Users want transparency.

Role: UX/UI Designer

Length: 1.5 Months

Team: Solo Project

Introduction

For this project, I was asked to design a new feature for an existing application– while adhering to its existing branding, style, and feel. I picked Spotify, and using the real life anecdotes of friends and family, along with Spotify's own community board, I decided to address an increasingly growing problem with music streaming platforms: transparency around AI generated content.

To decide what solution would best address this issue, I researched the problem space and then conducted my own user interviews and competitive analysis. With that data, I was able to verify that users not only had strong feelings about AI generated music being available on Spotify, but that they specifically disliked that AI generated music was not clearly labeled and differentiated. Working within a one month timeline, I created, tested, and iterated on my ideas and ended up with the concept of an AI tag.

Introduction

For this project, I was asked to design a new feature for an existing application– while adhering to its existing branding, style, and feel. I picked Spotify, and using the real life anecdotes of friends and family, along with Spotify's own community board, I decided to address an increasingly growing problem with music streaming platforms: transparency around AI generated content.

To decide what solution would best address this issue, I researched the problem space and then conducted my own user interviews and competitive analysis. With that data, I was able to verify that users not only had strong feelings about AI generated music being available on Spotify, but that they specifically disliked that AI generated music was not clearly labeled and differentiated. Working within a one month timeline, I created, tested, and iterated on my ideas and ended up with the concept of an AI tag.

Problem Space


What is the problem that needs to be solved?

Unlike typical music production, AI music can be generated so quickly and in such volume, that is beginning to bury real artists beneath it all.

The issue isn’t just that the AI music exists, it’s that it is often indistinguishable— and more important not visibly differentiated— from the music on the platform that is made by humans. This is especially prevalent for lyricless music, like “lofi beats”.

According to a study run by Deezer, a competing streaming platform,

“97% couldn’t tell the difference between fully AI-generated music and human-made music in a blind test”, 52% of people “felt uncomfortable with not being able to tell the difference between AI and human-made music”, and a whopping “80% agree that 100% AI-generated music should be clearly labeled to listeners”.

Not only does this problem have major ethical implications (copyright issues for the artists whose music was used to train the AI models, threatening the livelihood of artists, etc), it suggests a significant issue in transparency between the user and the product (in this case, Spotify).

Problem Space


What is the problem that needs to be solved?

Unlike typical music production, AI music can be generated so quickly and in such volume, that is beginning to bury real artists beneath it all.

The issue isn’t just that the AI music exists, it’s that it is often indistinguishable— and more important not visibly differentiated— from the music on the platform that is made by humans. This is especially prevalent for lyricless music, like “lofi beats”.

According to a study run by Deezer, a competing streaming platform,

“97% couldn’t tell the difference between fully AI-generated music and human-made music in a blind test”, 52% of people “felt uncomfortable with not being able to tell the difference between AI and human-made music”, and a whopping “80% agree that 100% AI-generated music should be clearly labeled to listeners”.

Not only does this problem have major ethical implications (copyright issues for the artists whose music was used to train the AI models, threatening the livelihood of artists, etc), it suggests a significant issue in transparency between the user and the product (in this case, Spotify).

Research


In order to determine the best possible solution, I employed the following methodologies:

Competitive Analysis

I researched and compared two of the largest music streaming applications: Apple Music and Youtube Music. I also researched Deezer, which is an indie music streaming platform that is working on their own patent pending AI detection system.

I compared their mission statements, their target markets, their strengths, and their weaknesses.


User Interviews

I then interviewed five different users about their experience with music streaming platforms, Spotify, and AI generated music.

These were the key findings from most of the interviewees:

POV Statements, How Might We Questions, and Personas

With the information I had from my secondary research, competitive analysis, and user interviews— I created point of view statements, how might we questions, and personas.

Feel free to reference these assets below.

POV Statement #1

Insight

Users have strong negative feelings towards AI generated music being available on music streaming platforms.

POV Statement

People who are using music streaming platforms like Spotify need to be able to avoid AI generated music completely if they so chose, otherwise they will feel deceived and distrustful.

HMW Questions

How might we make it so users can avoid AI generated music altogether, even if they are passive listeners?

POV Statement #2

Insight

Users have strong negative feelings towards AI generated music not being distinguishable from human made music.

POV Statement

People who are using music streaming platforms like Spotify need to be able to differentiate between AI generated music and human made music, otherwise they will feel disempowered and distrustful.

HMW Questions

How might we make it so that people can identify whether or not music is generated by AI or a human?


How might we make it so that people can identify whether or not a playlist is compiled by AI or a human?

Ideation


Now that I had identified the problem space, and the potential users, it was time to set some goals and figure out what the solution would look like.


Initial Pitch

A feature that tags AI generated music within the Spotify platform, along with a setting that allows for users to opt out of getting AI generated music recommended to them.


Project Goals

Wireframing and Prototyping


Now it was time to figure out how users would interact with this feature.


User Flows

I created user flows for the most important activities: 1) finding out more information about the AI tag, and 2) configuring the AI preferences in Spotify's settings.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

High-Fidelity Wireframes

User Testing


Now it was time to ensure that the feature was working as intended. Did it actually solve the problem I wanted it to?

What did users think? What would I have to change to make this the ideal solution to our problem? Here were the key findings:


Opportunities and Prioritization:

Final Designs


Now all there was left to do was make the final alterations!


The UI Library

Versioning

Final Designs

The Protoype

Conclusion


Users have strong feelings about AI music in general, and they value transparency above all else. I believe a feature like this would greatly increase user satisfaction.

©2026 Samantha Barbero

©2026 Samantha Barbero