YouTube Music labels AI-generated songs in three tiers
The three tiers — Fully, Partly and No Gen AI — show up on the player page, and partners can still monetize labeled tracks either way.
In short
YouTube Music now attaches one of three AI disclosures — Fully Gen AI, Partly Gen AI or No Gen AI — to tracks on the player page and in the YouTube app, drawing on what music partners declare plus the company's own detection tools.
At a glance
- Three disclosures: Fully Gen AI, Partly Gen AI, No Gen AI, shown on the player page and inside the YouTube app.
- Tapping a label opens an explanation of what role AI actually played in the recording.
- Auto-Tune and other pitch correction fall under No Gen AI, so they do not count as AI generation.
- Monetization stays open regardless of the AI share; YouTube leans on disclosure rather than blocking.
- Deezer reported in July about 90,000 fully AI-generated uploads a day, roughly 50 percent of daily uploads.
Songs on YouTube Music now carry one of three AI disclosures: Fully Gen AI, Partly Gen AI or No Gen AI. The tag sits on the player page and carries over into the YouTube app. It rests on declarations from music partners, backed by detection tools the company built with those partners.
A scale, not a single warning sticker
The top tier covers recordings a model produced end to end. Partly Gen AI is the hybrid case, where an artist folded AI-generated parts into performed material. Tap the label and you get a note on what the AI actually contributed, rather than a yes-or-no flag.
The third tier is the one worth reading twice. No Gen AI still fits tracks polished with pitch-correction tools such as Auto-Tune. Ordinary studio processing, in other words, is kept on the human side of the line — a distinction arguments about "real" music usually blur.
Disclosure instead of penalties
YouTube does not tie the tag to payouts. Monetization remains available no matter how much of a track a model wrote, and the company frames the whole system as disclosure rather than blanket restriction. That is consistent with its own position in the market, since it ships AI music tools of its own, including Dream Track.
Where rivals have landed
Volume is the reason any of this exists. Deezer said in July it was taking in roughly 90,000 fully AI-generated tracks a day — about 50 percent of daily uploads by the figures cited in the report — and keeps detected AI music out of recommendations while withholding royalties on it.
Spotify runs AI labels plus a spam filter for music. Apple Music has said it will add "Made With AI" labels later this year. TIDAL marks fully AI-generated recordings, lets listeners filter them out, and leaves them out of royalty attribution.
Still unanswered
The source reviewed here gives no start date and no list of countries, and it does not say whether declaring AI use is mandatory for partners or what happens to a partner who declares wrongly. A second report on the same announcement could not be opened for this piece, so nothing from it was used.
Reporting behind this article: TechCrunch, October 14, 2026.
FAQ
What AI labels does YouTube Music show?
Three: Fully Gen AI for entirely generated tracks, Partly Gen AI for hybrids, and No Gen AI when no generative model was involved.
Does Auto-Tune count as AI-generated music?
No. Pitch correction such as Auto-Tune sits in the No Gen AI tier, so it is not treated as generative AI.
Can AI-generated songs still earn money on YouTube?
Yes. YouTube allows monetization regardless of the AI share and relies on disclosure, unlike Deezer, which withholds royalties on detected AI tracks.
