Spotify's AI Remix Tool Could Arrive Early Next Year for $4 to $5 a Month. Sony and Warner Still Haven't Signed
The Financial Times reported the timing and price, which Spotify declined to confirm. UMG, Merlin, Kobalt and Believe have licensed catalog. Artists still get to choose whether their songs can be remixed.
Spotify plans to launch its AI-powered covers and remixes tool in the first quarter of 2027 and is weighing a price of $4 to $5 a month on top of existing subscriptions, the Financial Times reported Friday, according to Music Business Worldwide.
The FT cited people familiar with the plans, who cautioned that neither the timing nor the price has been finalized. Spotify declined to comment to the FT. The product could be unveiled around the Grammy Awards in February, the report said. The 69th Grammys are scheduled for Feb. 7, 2027, according to MBW.
What the tool does: paying Spotify subscribers would be able to use AI to make their own versions of songs by artists who have opted in. The FT's examples included reworking a folk song as a dance track, or making a version of a song that sounds as if a different artist is covering it.
Royalties from those fan-made remixes would go to the artists behind the original songs under Spotify's proposed plan, according to the report. Spotify is also building a way for remixes to appear in playlists, with their plays credited to the original tracks on Spotify's charts, the FT's sources said.
That detail matters for rap and R&B artists. If remix plays count toward the original's chart position, a song's fans could, in theory, push it up the charts by remixing it. How that would work in practice, and how Spotify would stop it from being gamed, has not been explained.
The licensing picture so far, as laid out by MBW: Universal Music Group came first, announcing a deal covering recorded music and publishing on May 21 at Spotify's Investor Day in New York. Merlin, which represents independent labels, followed Aug. 4. Kobalt signed Aug. 13. Believe signed Oct. 20, covering participating artists and labels at Believe and its self-release platform, TuneCore.
Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group are still negotiating, the FT reported.
Spotify has said it doesn't need everyone. "So the answer is we do not need a deal with all the majors," Co-CEO Gustav Söderström said on the company's Aug. 4 earnings call. "We would like to have as many artists as possible, obviously, but we don't expect to have all artists."
Even where a label signs, artists decide individually whether to take part, according to the report. Believe's announcement spelled out a two-step process: artists first choose whether to be considered for AI-related programs, and those who opt in are then offered the Spotify deal and can accept or decline. Believe said participation "will be entirely voluntary."
Spotify and Believe described the product as "designed specifically for AI-powered remixes and covers, not entirely new works," which distinguishes it from AI generators such as Suno that create new songs from text prompts. They said every remix on Spotify links back to the original track and artist.
Charlie Hellman, Spotify's global head of music, said in the Believe announcement: "Done right, fan creativity can deepen the connection between fans and the artists they love, creating new value for artists and driving attention back to the original music." Believe CEO Denis Ladegaillerie framed it as "turning an already widespread fan remixing activity into a licensed experience."
Söderström has pitched the tool as money for older catalogs. "If one of your fans creates a remix of your song, that actually increases the share of the streaming pool that you get," he said at a Goldman Sachs conference Sept. 9. "If you are an artist today, from the 1980s or 1990s, the way that you would make more money today is to hope that some other artist would create a remix or cover of your song. Now you can hope that all your fans actually create remixes and covers of your songs."
According to the FT, current major stars have been harder to sign up than some veteran acts. Spotify and Universal have been meeting with individual artists to bring their catalogs in.
The business case: Spotify reported third-quarter revenue of €4.97 billion, up 16%, and 306 million Premium subscribers at the end of September, MBW reported. Bernstein analyst Ian Moore estimated 7% to 8% of Spotify's U.S. subscribers could sign up for the tool by the end of 2028, according to the FT.
Still unknown: the final price, which artists opt in, and whether Sony and Warner sign before launch.
