Eleven music companies — including the three major label groups, Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group — jointly proposed a set of principles on July 29 governing when AI-assisted recordings should qualify for official music charts.

The group also includes independents and distributors: Believe, BMG, Concord, Dirty Hit, Glassnote Records, HYBE Corp., Mom+Pop Music and Partisan Records. The principles were released through a press release on Wednesday, July 29, according to Music Business Worldwide.

The proposing companies stated that AI-generated tracks have been appearing on streaming services, often built with tools trained on artists' music without permission, and are frequently tied to streaming fraud — the practice of artificially inflating play counts to earn revenue or chart position.

Under the proposed principles, a recording developed with generative AI must meet six conditions before it can be included in official charts. The AI services used must be properly authorised and lawful. The recording must be substantially human-made. It must raise no stream or chart manipulation concerns. It must comply with applicable laws, including copyright and personality rights — the legal protections around an individual's name, image and likeness. Its release must not breach the generative AI service's own terms. And the AI use must be appropriately signalled to consumers on downstream platforms.

The principles are intended to draw a clear line between human-led creativity and works that are purely synthetic or produced by unauthorised AI models. They also aim to ensure that tracks with fraudulently boosted stream counts are not recognised in the charts.

The proposal is designed as a unified roadmap for chart compilers, industry bodies and affiliated stakeholders worldwide — the organisations that operate charts such as the Billboard Hot 100, the Billboard 200 and the UK's Official Charts. The companies stated they stand ready to work with those bodies to discuss and support implementation.

What makes the proposal unusual is the breadth of the coalition behind it. The three majors — Universal, Sony and Warner — together control the majority of the recorded music market, but they are joined here by independents spanning several territories and business models, from HYBE in South Korea to Partisan in the UK and Dirty Hit in Britain. That spread suggests the concern about AI-generated recordings and chart manipulation is shared across the industry rather than confined to any one corner of it.

For listeners, the practical effect would be transparency: if a track reaching the charts used generative AI, consumers on streaming services would be told. Whether chart compilers adopt the principles, and on what timeline, is now a matter for those bodies to decide.