Australian music charts ban AI-generated songs after controversy over the edited Madonna track

The Australian Recording Industry Association announced that musical works that are produced entirely, or in a major creative portion, by artificial intelligence will be excluded from the official song charts and their annual awards, in a regulatory move that draws a line between assisted use of the technology and full replacement of human creativity. The decision, which will take effect at the end of the week, keeps the door open for works that employ smart software only in supporting roles, subjecting them to a classification system developed in collaboration with international bodies, including the Recording Industry Association of America.

The new standard relies on a strict distinction between two main categories of works: “AI-generated” works in which algorithms compose the piece or the larger portion of its creative elements, and “AI-assisted” works in which the technology is limited to certain supportive expressive aspects. Annabel Herd, chief executive of the association, which includes major global production companies such as Sony Music and Universal Music in Australia, explained that the official charts aim to keep pace with legitimate technological developments while protecting the human nature of artistic work and rejecting products that are generated entirely by relying on other artists’ creations.

The regulatory move came against the backdrop of the widespread controversy sparked by an electronic remake of Madonna’s 1989 hit “Like a Prayer.”The version produced by music coordinator Josh Fawaz topped the Australian dance-track chart and amassed more than 48.5 million streams on Spotify before Fawaz later acknowledged, amid listener and producer doubts, that he had used artificial intelligence to generate the vocal and drum tracks in the recording. Although he defended his stance by describing the technology as merely a production tool and welcomed the new rules, the incident accelerated the artistic bodies’ move to prevent AI-generated works from reaching top positions.

Researchers in the technology and arts sectors see the measures as an inevitable response to the practices of commercial music-generation companies that have trained their models on protected works without prior licensing. According to academics from the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney, the lack of safeguards has created a phenomenon that pursues rapid-streaming profits through automated content, making legal and technical differentiation a urgent necessity to protect intellectual-property rights and build confidence in digital production tools that have become part of modern music creation.

The shift carries direct operational implications for producers, sound studios and digital distribution platforms in the Arab region, particularly in music and advertising production hubs in the Gulf, Egypt and the Levant. Adopting global standards for classifying musical content means that works that rely on fully generated sounds or melodies will face increasing restrictions on official broadcasting and commercial licensing, as well as heightened risk of legal disputes over intellectual property. Local production teams now need to limit the use of AI tools to editorial and supporting engineering tracks, and document the extent of human intervention at each production stage, to ensure that the works qualify for placement on global platforms and are protected from exclusion or regulatory delisting.