SAMPLEDBeatport drew a line on AI music — here is exactly what it bans and what it tags
The dance-music store will refuse tracks that are wholly or substantially machine-generated, and label the rest. Here is what uploaders need to change.
Beatport has published a policy that splits AI music into two buckets: the kind it will not sell, and the kind it will sell with a label attached.
What is banned
Tracks that are wholly or substantially generated by an AI system are not accepted. In practice that means a prompt-to-song render, lightly topped and tailed, is not a Beatport release. The store's position is that its catalogue is a professional DJ tool and that fully synthetic uploads dilute it.
What is allowed, with a tag
Tracks that are AI-assisted are allowed if the majority of the creative work is human. That covers the things most producers already do: stem separation, generative MIDI ideas you then rewrite, AI-aided mastering, denoising, upscaling of old recordings. Those releases get an AI-assisted marker so a buyer can see it before they pay.
Who this actually affects
- Producers uploading through a distributor. Your distributor collects the AI disclosure field. If you leave it blank and the track is flagged later, the takedown lands on your account, not the store's.
- Labels with a submissions inbox. You now need the question in your demo form. "Was any part of this generated?" is faster to ask before signing than after.
- DJs. The tag is a filter. Expect crate-digging habits to shift toward it the way lossless and extended-mix filters did.
How to disclose without hurting yourself
Disclosure is not an admission of laziness. Be specific and narrow:
- Name the tool and the task — "vocal stem isolated with a separation model", not "made with AI".
- Keep the human record: project files, takes, session dates. If a claim comes, the session is the evidence.
- Do not disclose things that are not generative. An EQ with a learning algorithm is not a generated composition.
Why this matters beyond one store
Storefront policy is turning into de facto metadata law. Once one major retailer requires a disclosure field, distributors add it globally, and the field starts travelling with the release everywhere. If you understand metadata as the part of a release that outlives the audio, this is a permanent new column in it.
How to learn more: read Beatport's own policy page before your next upload, and check your distributor's submission form for the AI question — most added it quietly.