YouTube Music Needs This One Key Tidal Feature

We all have our own set of standards that influence our music streaming service of choice, whether it's sound quality, algorithmic recommendations, or ability to share between users and third-party platforms. For instance, Apple Music is known for its high sound quality options like spatial audio, Tidal for its artist-first model plus lossless audio, and Spotify for its hyper-personalized playlists that fit users' daily routines. And while many users agree that YouTube Music's recommendations are better than other streaming services, it does lack a distinct feature from competing platforms like Tidal made for those who prefer their music human-made: labels for 100% AI-generated music.

As stated on Tidal's website, the platform has transparent policies for AI-generated music. While Tidal allows uploading such tracks to its streaming service, the company says they must be labeled appropriately, including for AI. Moreover, Tidal gives its users the option to report songs they believe are AI-generated but are not tagged as such, creating a check on the system. Tidal can also prevent any tracks tagged as AI-generated from being streamed or added into their libraries or recommendations.

Spotify has offered similar approaches, including labels for AI artists. YouTube Music has not been so outwardly public about its plans or approach. Articles from Music Business Worldwide and Billboard Music indicate that so far, YouTube implemented AI content labels for videos in May 2026—however, the system is focused on video elements, and doesn't apply as much to purely audio tracks. Instead, the company has focused its efforts on reducing payouts for AI-generated music.

YouTube Music has over 100 million songs on the platform, and no one's really sure how many of songs on the platform are primarily created with AI. A study also found that only 3% of listeners could identify AI-generated music, despite growing backlash against the technology. Reddit user verdedefome shared their concerns on how this has affected their overall experience in r/YouTubeMusic: "I fear it's going to become harder and harder to find new small artists through (YouTube Music) now because AI is going to take up all the space."

As labels identifying AI-generated tracks on audio YouTube Music tracks remain absent, users would have to resort to doing the research themselves. Fortunately, some artists have voluntarily disclosed their use of generative AI, but that's not all. To help push transparency, platforms like Deezer have built tools to identify AI-generated, which could help reduce some steps in the process. On the other hand, the only other option YouTube Music users could do once they have identified AI-generated tracks is to tap "Thumbs Down" on the song, remove it from your library, and hope it doesn't come back in your recommendations. 

Google does appear to be working on the issue. Android Authority reported that some users were provided a test option in YouTube Music that allows them to tap and hold any song or album and select the "Don't recommend artist." Doing so will stop the service from including them in recommendations. This feature, however, appears to still be in testing. 

If you don't mind doing these steps and choose to rely on YouTube Music's ability to provide quality recommendations to you, then staying on the platform is reasonable—otherwise, consider other major music streaming services to subscribe to.