A song that has captivated audiences in Sweden has been prohibited from the country’s music charts due to its creation by Artificial Intelligence. Titled “I Know, You’re Not Mine – Jag vet, du är inte min” and performed by the AI-generated “artist” Jacub, the track currently leads Spotify’s playlist of Sweden’s most popular songs, racking up over five million streams since its release.
Despite its impressive streaming success, the Swedish music industry body, IFPI Sweden, has disqualified the song from appearing in its official chart listings. The organization’s rule states that songs that are predominantly AI-generated do not qualify for top rankings. Ludvig Werner, head of IFPI, emphasized this stance, stating, “Our rule is that if it is a song that is mainly AI-generated, it does not have the right to be on the top list.”
Jacub’s folk-pop track, characterized by a gentle acoustic guitar melody and soothing vocals, quickly emerged as Sweden’s biggest song of the year to date. Following its rise, local journalists began to investigate the identity of Jacub and discovered the artist lacked a substantial social media presence, media appearances, or planned tour dates.
Swedish journalist Emanuel Karlsten uncovered that the song was registered to a group of executives affiliated with Stellar Music, a music publishing and marketing firm based in Denmark. Notably, two individuals associated with the project work in Stellar’s AI department, as reported by BBC News.
The producers, who collectively refer to themselves as Team Jacub, communicated with Karlsten to clarify that their creative process had been misunderstood. They asserted, “We are not an anonymous tech company that just ‘pressed a button.’ The team behind Jacub consists of experienced music creators, songwriters, and producers who have invested a lot of time, care, emotions, and financial resources.” The team framed AI as a “tool” within a “human-controlled creative process” and highlighted the five million streams as indicative of the song’s “long-term artistic value.”
When questioned about Jacub’s authenticity as a real person, they stated, “That depends on how you define the term,” further adding, “Jacub is an artistic project developed and carried by a team of human songwriters, producers, and creators. The feelings, stories, and experiences in the music are real, because they come from real people.”
This incident is not isolated; AI-generated songs have previously achieved commercial success. In November, “Walk My Walk” by Breaking Rust topped Billboard’s Country Digital Songs chart and the Viral 50 chart. Similarly, Sienna Rose, another AI-generated music creator, has garnered 2.7 million monthly Spotify listeners and has even caught the attention of Selena Gomez.
Recently, Bandcamp officially banned AI music from its platform, stating, “If you encounter music or audio that appears to be made entirely or with heavy reliance on generative AI, please use our reporting tools to flag the content for review by our team. We reserve the right to remove any music on suspicion of being AI generated.”
Last year, the AI-generated band The Velvet Sundown attracted media attention after accumulating around 400,000 monthly Spotify listeners, only for its spokesperson to later admit it was a hoax aimed at “the media.” Other AI-generated artists, such as Xania Monet, have signed multimillion-dollar record deals and made history as the first AI artist to chart on the US Billboard rankings. The creator of Monet has described her as a “real person” challenging societal norms.
The rise of AI in music has elicited mixed reactions within the industry. Singer Kehlani expressed concerns over the proliferation of AI-generated music, stating it was “so beyond out of our control” and lamenting the lack of credit for individuals involved in the creation of the original works that AI systems use for training. She concluded, “Nothing and no one on Earth will ever be able to justify AI to me.”
In a similar vein, the Cardiff rock group Holding Absence voiced frustration after an AI ‘band’ eclipsed their streaming figures on Spotify within just two months. Frontman Lucas Woodland described the experience as “shocking,” “disheartening,” and “insulting,” labeling it a wake-up call for the industry.
As audiences struggle to differentiate between traditional and AI-generated music, a recent report by streaming service Deezer indicated that 97 percent of people “can’t tell the difference” between the two. This ongoing evolution raises critical questions about the future of music creation and the role of technology in artistic expression.
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