More Bad News From Spotify?

In a newsletter I get from Music Business Worldwide, there’s an article titled “Spotify holds a patent for tech that can generate song mashups”. In it it says:

The filing, unearthed by MBW, describes a system that can analyze songs to determine which tracks are musically compatible, then automatically combine them into new mashup versions for individual users.

According to the document, the technology would work by first separating tracks into their component parts - vocals and instrumentals - then "adding the vocal component" of "at least one music track to at least a select segment of the base music track."

In other words, Spotify's algorithm could automatically layer the singing from one song over the backing track of a completely different song, though users would still control the creative choices.

Our discovery arrives hot on the heels of last week's news that Spotify plans to develop "artist-first" AI music products in partnership with the majors and key independents. One of the big questions following that announcement was what exactly those products might be.

A Spotify spokesperson told us on Tuesday (October 21) that the company's song mashup patent is "unrelated to last week's announcement".

Looks to me to be another good reason to dump Spotify as a platform. Ripping off artist’s work without attribution or payment is outright theft.