Spotify signed a licensing deal with Believe on October 20, 2026, opening its upcoming AI covers and remixes tool to participating artists and labels at Believe and TuneCore. Nobody is in by default: artists pass two separate opt-ins, and Spotify still has not published a price, a launch date or a royalty rate.
That makes Believe the fourth rights partner announced for the tool. TuneCore is Believe's platform for self-releasing artists, so an artist who uploads their own music there can, in principle, let Spotify Premium subscribers who buy the planned paid add-on reinterpret it with AI, and get paid when those versions are streamed.
What exactly does an independent artist opt into?
According to the announcement on Spotify's newsroom, the tool is “designed specifically for AI-powered remixes and covers, not entirely new works.” Fans make the versions; streams of those versions pay royalties to the participating artists and rights holders behind the original. Spotify says every remix links back to the original track and artist, which is the main difference it draws with the uncredited edits that already circulate on social media.
Consent runs in two steps. First, a Believe or TuneCore artist decides whether to be considered for AI-related programs at all. Only artists who say yes are then shown the Spotify partnership, and they make a second, separate choice about it. As Hypebot put it, agreeing to hear about AI opportunities “does not automatically enroll an artist” in the tool.
The artist must consent first, period.Denis Ladegaillerie, Believe founder and CEO, to Music Business Worldwide (September 2026)
Ladegaillerie told MBW that artists who pass the first layer are then offered individual partners, naming Spotify, YouTube and Suno, and can opt out of each one. That matters because Believe's AI stance has moved fast this year: it began blocking tracks made on unlicensed AI platforms, Suno included, on April 30, then signed its own licensing deal with Suno on September 8.
Who has signed so far?
Spotify named five partners for “artist-first AI music products” in October 2025. Four deals for this tool are now public. The tool itself still is not.
| Date | Partner | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| May 21, 2026 | Universal Music Group | Recorded music and music publishing |
| Aug 4, 2026 | Merlin | Independent labels under its Spotify agreement; artists choose |
| Aug 13, 2026 | Kobalt | Songwriters, the first publisher outside UMG |
| Oct 20, 2026 | Believe and TuneCore | Participating artists and labels |
Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group had not announced deals for the tool as of October 2026. Spotify says it does not need them: on its August 4 earnings call, co-CEO Gustav Söderström said, “we do not need a deal with all the majors,” and described the next step as a research preview for a subset of users.
What is still not public?
Almost everything that decides whether this is worth saying yes to. Neither company has given the add-on's price, the royalty rate, or how the money is divided between artists, labels and songwriters. Hypebot flagged the same gaps, plus the missing launch date.
The song side is the quiet question. Spotify's own Charlie Hellman said in August, announcing the Kobalt deal, that “covers and remixes begin with the song,” and UMG's deal explicitly spans both recordings and publishing. The Believe announcement covers participating artists and labels and mentions songwriters’ earnings, but it does not say how a cover gets cleared when a TuneCore artist's composition is co-written, or published by someone else. MBW noted in August that even the Kobalt announcement did not explain how songs with multiple writers across multiple publishers would be handled.
An opt-in is only as useful as the terms behind it, and the terms are the part nobody has printed.
The timing is not accidental either. Spotify said on the same day that it has pulled more than 50 million slop and spam tracks from recommendations this year, and the Believe announcement set the remix deal alongside that work, with Ladegaillerie saying the two companies want to “eradicate AI slop.” For context on how labels and platforms are drawing these lines, see our pieces on consent, voice and likeness in AI music, this year's AI music settlements and YouTube Music's AI labels.
What should a TuneCore artist do now?
Nothing is live, so there is nothing to switch off. The practical move is to watch for the first opt-in question from Believe or TuneCore, remember that saying yes to it only means hearing about offers, and wait for the second screen to show a rate before agreeing to the Spotify one. Believe says more on its AI content framework will be “shared in due course.”