Bandcamp has announced a full ban on AI-generated music, saying it wants to protect human creativity on the platform.
Bandcamp has formally banned AI-generated music from its platform, drawing a clear line in the ongoing debate around AI and creative work. The decision was announced on January 13, with the company stating that the move is about protecting the human-centered culture that has defined Bandcamp since its launch.
In its announcement, Bandcamp said it was motivated by “the sheer quantity of human creativity and passion that artists express on Bandcamp every single day,” adding that being “home to such a vibrant community of real people making incredible music is something we want to protect and maintain.”
Under the new policy, music or audio that is generated wholly or in substantial part by AI is no longer permitted on the site. The platform also reiterated that using AI tools to impersonate other artists or replicate specific styles is not allowed. According to Bandcamp, that practice is “strictly prohibited in accordance with our existing policies prohibiting impersonation and intellectual property infringement.”
Bandcamp has also put enforcement partly in the hands of its users. “If you encounter music or audio that appears to be made entirely or with heavy reliance on generative AI, please use our reporting tools to flag the content for review by our team,” the company said. “We reserve the right to remove any music on suspicion of being AI generated.”
The full statement, titled “Keeping Bandcamp Human,” outlines the philosophical reasoning behind the ban. Bandcamp described music as “the result of a human cultural dialog stretching back before the written word,” and positioned musicians as “vital members of our communities, our culture, and our social fabric,” rather than content producers.
“Today we are fortifying our mission by articulating our policy on generative AI, so that musicians can keep making music, and so that fans have confidence that the music they find on Bandcamp was created by humans,” the statement reads.
The policy arrives as generative AI becomes increasingly common across music platforms. In July last year, streaming service Deezer revealed that 28 percent of the music uploaded to its service was fully AI-generated, a figure that alarmed many artists and industry workers concerned about oversaturation, copyright, and lost income.
Bandcamp’s stance is notably firmer than most major platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music, which have so far opted to accommodate AI-generated content with varying degrees of labeling or moderation. Earlier this month, an act by the name of Broken Avenue on Spotify and Apple music was accused of ripping off acts like Knocked Loose and Counterparts sonically and via album art with what appeared to be AI. By contrast, Bandcamp’s approach leaves little room for ambiguity, prioritising artist-fan trust over scale or automation.
“With this policy, we’re putting human creativity first, and we will be sure to communicate any updates to the policy as the rapidly changing generative AI space develops,” Bandcamp said.
MORE IN Music
