9 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Spotify

James Vincent
James Vincent
AI-generated music isn’t just a copyright hazard.

It may also enable streaming fraud, reports The Financial Times, where bots are directed to target tracks to generate revenue.

Spotify has removed tens of thousands of AI-generated songs uploaded to its service by startup Boomy because of suspected “artificial streaming.” (Though Spotify did not confirm this.) It’s another example of generative AI enabling misuse by creating a flood of content.

Jacob Kastrenakes
Jacob Kastrenakes
Spotify’s CEO is “disappointed but not surprised” by the Apple–Epic ruling.

On an earnings call today, Daniel EK called Epic’s single win — which will let app developers tell users about non-Apple payment options — “very important.” But mostly, he said the US still needs a law to be passed to open up mobile devices from the control of Apple and Google.

Here’s Ek on why he sees this as a big issue:

“When I started as a 14 year-old entrepreneur, the internet was this democratic place that anyone, anywhere in the world could have an impact, and right now we’re in a place where billions of consumers are using the internet primarily through smartphones and ... there’s literally two companies now that control all of that on the internet and they can unilaterally change the rules.”

Spotify loosens its grip on exclusive podcastsSpotify loosens its grip on exclusive podcasts
Ariel Shapiro and Amrita Khalid
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
AI-generated music is shuffling toward an intellectual property nightmare.

Universal Music Group (UMG) has allegedly urged streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music to crack down on AI-music services that are training off of their copyrighted music libraries.

It’s not clear exactly what the streaming services can do. In the meantime, UMG has been issuing takedown requests on AI-generated songs appearing on the platforms and warned that it “will not hesitate” to protect the rights of its artists.

Ariel Shapiro
Ariel Shapiro
Spotify is dragging its feet on diversity spending.

In the wake of the Joe Rogan controversy last year, Spotify tried to smooth things over with a $100 million diversity fund. According to Bloomberg, the company has fulfilled less than 10% of that commitment so far.

ChatGPT comes for radioChatGPT comes for radio
Ariel Shapiro
Why Spotify wants to look like TikTok, with co-president Gustav Söderström

You’re going to have strong feelings about this redesign.

Alex Heath
Alex Heath
Alex Heath
Inside Spotify’s big redesign.

Subscribers to Command Line just got highlights from an interview I did yesterday with Gustav Söderström, Spotify’s co-president who oversees all of product and engineering. We talk about the controversial redesign that introduces a TikTok-like feed to Spotify and why it’s happening, plus why Spotify reorg’d earlier this year.

The full conversation is coming out on Decoder next week.

Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Jacob Kastrenakes
Jacob Kastrenakes
Spotify is holding a big event today.

And CEO Daniel Ek is already teasing the news: a “completely redesigned” home feed. Maybe this is the rumored TikTok-style approach we keep hearing about.

The event kicks off at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. We’ll be reporting back with all the news.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
What the heck is ‘Deep Discofox’?

Every Noise at Once is an ongoing project to map the over 6,000 genres and sub-genres listed on Spotify’s music catalog. This fun little timesink can play you an example of each genre or open an entire Spotify playlist of it if you like what you hear.

Go forth, and learn the differences between ‘Egg Punk’ and ‘Bardcore’.

Brandon Widder
Brandon Widder
Spotify’s AI-powered DJ doesn’t know how to blend.

I’ve spent the last couple of days listening to Spotify’s new DJ beta, which began rolling out to paid subscribers last week in the US and tries to humanize the custom playlists Spotify already feeds you.

Its synthesized voice and subtle quips aren’t teeeerrible, but, my dude, you can’t just segue from Seether to 1989-era T-Swift like that.