Jermaine Dupri wants artists to set the fee and pick the songs before Spotify's AI remix tool launches

Jermaine Dupri wants artists to set the fee and pick the songs before Spotify lets fans remix their music with AI. In an Instagram post on October 31, 2026, the So So Def founder told artists to “come together and create a fee for what we want, and what songs we allow this to happen to.”

He ended it with an ultimatum for Spotify: “THEY GOTTA CUT US IN, OR CUT THIS SHIT OUT.”

The post went up a day after the Financial Times reported that Spotify plans to launch its AI covers and remixes tool in the first quarter of 2027, at $4 to $5 a month on top of Premium. Four rights holders have licensed music for it. None of them has published what an artist earns per remix.

What Jermaine Dupri asked artists to demand from Spotify on Instagram

Dupri posted a text summary of the FT report with his caption, and AllHipHop reported the post on November 1. The caption asks for 2 things the summary doesn’t cover:

• A fee that artists agree on together.
• A say in which songs the tool can use.

“

Whoever is behind this, believes they can change the landscape of music and take all the value away from the actual artist and producers who did it and give it to someone else.

He backed the demand with a number, writing that Spotify is “scheduled to make $21.85 billion THIS year.” I couldn’t trace that figure to a Spotify filing or forecast.

Other artists answered in the replies. Rapsody wrote “Artist Union is needed,” MC Lyte wrote “Total agreement!!” and Troy Carter, Spotify’s former global head of creator services, wrote, “In times like these you need artists like Prince.” Not every reply agreed: one commenter pointed out that the summary in the post already says remix royalties go to the original artist.

How will artists get paid for Spotify AI remixes?

Artists get paid for Spotify AI remixes through royalties on the original song. Here’s what Spotify and its partners have put on the record:

• Fans pay $4 to $5 a month on top of Premium, per the FT’s sources. Spotify hasn’t confirmed it.
• Streams of a fan’s remix pay royalties to the artists and rights holders behind the original track, per the Believe and TuneCore deal of October 20.
• Songwriters share in the add-on’s revenue, per the Kobalt deal of August 13.
• Universal’s May 21 agreements cover recordings and publishing, and Spotify calls the tool “an additional source of income for artists and songwriters.”

What’s missing lines up with Dupri’s 2 asks. No deal publishes a royalty rate or a split, and the fan price is Spotify’s decision.

The opt-in works artist by artist, through rights holders like Merlin and Believe. None of the announcements says whether an artist can pick which songs are in.

Jermaine Dupri has criticized AI music before, from Udio in 2024 to Suno in 2026

In April 2024 he told AllHipHop that Udio was disrespectful to musicians and asked why the music business lets outsiders set its rules. “You don’t do this to the NBA,” he said.

In late 2025 he asked on X how AI artist Xania Monet was any different from Milli Vanilli, Vice reported. And when a Suno ad starring Mary J. Blige spread on TikTok in late August 2026, he pushed back on Instagram.

That same month he dropped his $18 million royalty lawsuit against Sony Music, a separate fight over catalog royalties.

The Spotify post puts terms first: cut artists in, and drop the tool only if Spotify won’t. Sony Music and Warner Music Group were still negotiating for the tool as of the FT’s October 30 report.

If your music goes out through Universal, Merlin, Kobalt, Believe or TuneCore, your opt-in is the one say you have over it right now.