Rights, rules, and how the industry pays.
Four revenue lanes opened for independent artists in one month: paid fan remixes on Spotify through the Merlin deal, TikTok LIVE gifts on original songs, SoundCloud's hand-picked The Upload, and YouTube fan funding that stays at 500 subscribers while ad thresholds double in 2027.
Spotify removed about 75 million spam and AI-generated uploads in 12 months and begins badging AI acts in mid-September 2026. Badged profiles are excluded from personalised recommendations by default, which hands recommendation slots back to human catalogues.
Luminate's midyear 2026 report puts global on-demand streams up 9.8 percent to 2.8 trillion, while US growth reached only 4.8 percent. CD sales rose 16 percent and Spanish-language music now takes roughly 10 percent of US streams.
Since 2 August 2026, AI-generated or AI-edited audio and video distributed in the EU must be labeled, with machine-readable markings required. The rules affect any artist using generative tools in their music or their content.
SoundCloud launched The Upload on 3 August 2026: a weekly human-curated discovery playlist with editorial commentary and no follower requirement, positioned as an answer to algorithmic fatigue.