ARIA bans wholly AI-generated songs from the Australian charts from Friday

ARIA has updated its Charts Code of Practice to keep wholly AI-generated recordings off the Australian charts, the ABC reported on August 25. The new code excludes music made with generative AI unless it is “substantially human-made” and “raises no stream or chart manipulation concerns.” It applies from the charts published this Friday, August 28.

Three weeks ago ARIA would only say it was working through what a chart change could look like. Australia now has the rule, and it arrives with teeth: ARIA can remove ineligible recordings, alter chart positions, and revoke chart awards. Artists and their representatives can contest an exclusion.

ARIA chief executive Annabelle Herd drew the line at the source of the model rather than at AI use itself. Artists already reach for these tools, she said, and music generated wholly by services built on artists’ recordings is a different matter altogether.

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We call on all parties who have a role in deciding the music played and promoted to Australian audiences, particularly radio, to support human artistry and implement similar changes across their own codes.

Why Josh Fawaz’s AI “Like A Prayer” rework looks ineligible under ARIA’s new code

The Queensland DJ and producer’s Madonna cover is the reason this rule exists. It became the most-played song on Australian radio and hit number 4 on two ARIA charts in July, then drew criticism from musicians who suspected generative AI. Fawaz said he used AI “as a tool” and later updated the Spotify track listing to say the vocals and drums were AI-generated.

An ARIA spokesperson told the ABC that the IFPI principles the code follows would likely disqualify a recording whose lead vocals or key instrumentals came from AI. On Fawaz’s own disclosure, both did.

ARIA is not acting alone. IFPI said in July that more than 20 official chart programs were adopting rules to separate human-made recordings from wholly generated ones, built on the eligibility principles 11 music companies published a month earlier. Australia is the first national chart to convert the framework into an enforceable code with a date on it.

What ARIA’s chart ban changes if you release AI-assisted music in Australia

The disclosure now decides the outcome. Fawaz kept his radio play and lost his chart claim by editing a track listing, and ARIA’s compiler reads what you declare through your distributor.

Chart eligibility is also not the same gate as distribution or streaming. Spotify badges AI personas and drops them from recommendations by default, but the badge marks the identity behind a profile, not whether AI touched a specific recording. Your AI-assisted single still ships, still streams, and still earns. It stops at the chart.

The one number nobody has published is the threshold. “Substantially human-made” carries no percentage, no stem count, no test. Until ARIA rules on a contested case, the safest read is the one its spokesperson gave the ABC: keep the lead vocal and the key instrumental parts human.