Symphonic’s Stance on Generative AI

At Symphonic, our priority is to support artists, labels, and creators while protecting the integrity of the global music ecosystem. As generative AI continues to evolve, we believe innovation must be balanced with transparency, responsible licensing, and respect for artists and rights holders.

The technology, legal landscape, licensing environment, and policies of digital service providers (DSPs) are changing quickly. Our approach will evolve alongside them. We are committed to establishing practical standards today while adapting our requirements as clearer industry guidance, licensing frameworks, and technical solutions become available.

Our Core Principles

• Transparency: Content must comply with applicable disclosure requirements and accurately represent how it was created.
• Rights & Ownership: Uploaders must have the rights and appropriate permissions necessary to create, distribute, and monetize the content they deliver through Symphonic.
• Responsible AI: We support the use of generative AI models and services that operate with appropriate licensing, authorization, and respect for rights holders.
• Platform Integrity: We actively work to prevent fraud, impersonation, streaming manipulation, misleading metadata, and other abusive uses of AI.
• DSP Compliance: We respect the individual AI policies and requirements established by our DSP and distribution partners.

Generative AI Content

Symphonic recognizes that generative AI is becoming part of the creative process for artists, producers, songwriters, labels, and other creators.

Our goal is to support responsible uses of this technology while doing our best to ensure that fully AI-generated content distributed through Symphonic originates from models and services that have appropriately licensed or otherwise authorized the materials used to train and operate their systems.

Determining whether an AI model meets that standard is not always straightforward. The AI industry is evolving quickly, licensing arrangements are not always public, and there is not yet a universal technical or legal standard for verifying how every model was trained.

We will therefore make the best determinations reasonably available to us based on information provided by AI companies, licensing partners, rights holders, industry organizations, DSPs, technical tools, and other credible sources. As better methods of identifying and verifying properly licensed models become available, we will incorporate them into our processes.

Creators remain responsible for ensuring they have the rights and permissions necessary to distribute their content.

Generative AI content may be accepted for distribution provided that:

• The content complies with Symphonic's policies and applicable laws and regulations
• The AI tools or models used meet our applicable licensing and authorization requirements
• The uploader has the rights and permissions necessary to distribute and monetize the resulting content
• There is no unauthorized impersonation, infringement, fraud, or misleading representation
• AI involvement is accurately disclosed when required
• The content complies with the policies of the DSPs and other services to which it is being delivered

Acceptance by Symphonic does not guarantee acceptance by every DSP or partner.

DSP and Partner Requirements

DSPs, social platforms, licensing partners, and other services may establish their own policies governing AI-generated or AI-assisted content.

If a DSP or partner prohibits certain types of AI-generated content, Symphonic will respect that policy and will not knowingly deliver ineligible content to that destination.

Likewise, if a partner establishes specific disclosure, metadata, provenance, licensing, or other requirements for AI-generated content, we will work to implement those requirements.

This means that a release may be eligible for distribution through Symphonic while being ineligible for delivery to a particular DSP, service, territory, program, or monetization opportunity.

As these policies evolve, our delivery requirements will evolve with them.

AI Disclosure and Verification

Transparency is an important part of building a sustainable ecosystem for AI-generated music.

Where applicable, we will require creators and rights holders to disclose the use of generative AI in the content they deliver to Symphonic.

However, disclosure will not rely solely on what an uploader tells us.

Symphonic is investing in software, fingerprinting, detection, provenance, and other technical solutions that can help us identify and validate AI-generated content. We may use these technologies to independently review or supplement information provided by uploaders.

No AI detection technology is perfect. Human disclosure and technical verification will therefore work together as part of our approach.

Uploaders remain responsible for providing accurate information and complying with our policies regardless of whether our systems independently identify AI involvement.

Licensed AI Ecosystems and Partnerships

We believe one of the most promising paths forward for generative AI is the development of licensed ecosystems in which artists and rights holders have a meaningful opportunity to authorize, participate in, and benefit from the use of their work.

As these arrangements develop, Symphonic intends to support and respect licensed environments and "walled garden" models where AI companies, creators, and rights holders operate under agreed-upon licensing and usage terms.

Where our licensing relationships create specific requirements or approved pathways for AI-generated content, we will respect the rules and restrictions associated with those arrangements.

Our objective is to encourage an ecosystem in which AI innovation and rights-holder participation can grow together.

What We Do Not Allow

Symphonic does not permit:

• Content that infringes or clearly misappropriates existing copyrighted works
• Content created through AI models or services that do not meet applicable licensing or authorization requirements established by Symphonic
• Unauthorized content intended to mimic, clone, or impersonate real artists, brands, or individuals
• Fraudulent or deceptive uses of an individual's name, image, likeness, or voice
• Spam, mass-generated low-quality uploads, or other abusive uses of generative AI
• Content intended to manipulate streams, recommendations, charts, royalties, or other DSP systems
• Misleading or inaccurate metadata
• Knowingly false AI disclosures or failure to disclose AI involvement where disclosure is required
• Content that otherwise violates Symphonic's content policies or the requirements of the destination DSP or partner

Symphonic reserves the right to reject, restrict, remove, or limit delivery of content when we reasonably believe these standards have not been met.

Our Investment in Responsible AI

Symphonic is actively developing infrastructure and partnerships designed to support a legitimate and sustainable AI ecosystem.

• AI Dataset Licensing Addendum
  We have introduced a framework for legitimate AI training and licensing opportunities, enabling participating rights holders to authorize uses of their content and benefit from responsible AI innovation.
• Audio Fingerprinting, Detection & Validation
  We are implementing technologies designed to help identify AI-generated content, validate disclosures, protect rights holders, and support compliance with Symphonic and DSP policies.
• Strategic Licensing Partnerships
  We are pursuing relationships with AI platforms and technology companies that create licensed and compliant pathways for the use of music in AI and the creation and distribution of AI-generated content.
• Evolving Metadata & Disclosure Standards
  As DSPs and the broader music industry establish standardized ways to identify AI-generated and AI-assisted content, we will work to incorporate those standards into our distribution infrastructure.

Our Position

Generative AI is evolving faster than any single policy can reasonably anticipate.

Our position is therefore based on principles rather than unrestricted acceptance or a blanket rejection of AI-generated music.

Symphonic is focused on:

• Supporting creators who use AI responsibly
• Prioritizing appropriately licensed and authorized AI models
• Respecting the individual AI policies of our DSP and distribution partners
• Providing meaningful and accurate AI disclosure
• Using technology to supplement human disclosure and improve verification
• Supporting licensed AI ecosystems and partnerships
• Creating opportunities for artists and rights holders to participate in AI licensing
• Preventing fraud, impersonation, infringement, and platform manipulation
• Updating our requirements as technology, licensing practices, regulations, and industry standards evolve

We recognize that determining whether a model, service, or piece of content meets these standards will not always be simple. We will make the best reasonable efforts we can with the information and technology available to us and will strengthen our enforcement as better tools, standards, and licensing information become available.

Our policies may therefore change as DSP requirements, laws and regulations, licensing frameworks, technical standards, and industry guidance develop.

Bottom Line

Symphonic believes generative AI can have a legitimate place in the future of music—but that future must respect the people and rights that make music possible.

We support responsible AI innovation built around transparency, appropriate licensing, creator choice, and respect for rights holders.

We will work to ensure that AI-generated content distributed through Symphonic is created and delivered through responsible and appropriately licensed pathways, while recognizing that the industry's ability to verify those pathways will continue to improve.

We will respect the AI policies established by our DSP partners, support licensed ecosystems as they develop, combine creator disclosure with technical verification, and establish additional requirements as clearer standards emerge.

Our goal is not to prevent creators from using new technology. It is to help build an AI ecosystem where innovation can move forward responsibly, platforms can trust the content they receive, and artists and rights holders are respected, protected, and given opportunities to participate in the value AI creates.