Australia’s official music charts will stop counting songs built entirely by artificial intelligence. The Australian Recording Industry Association has rewritten its Charts Code of Practice, and the change kicks in with the ARIA chart dated August 31. Songs that use AI as a helper are still welcome. Songs where the machine did the actual creative work are out, and ARIA says the point is to “promote the human nature of artistry” in what it calls the most crowded market artists have ever had to fight through.The timing is not a coincidence. A version of Madonna’s Like a Prayer by Queensland DJ Josh Fawaz, made with AI-generated vocals and drums, has spent 16 weeks in the Australian top 20. It peaked at No. 2 in May, was still sitting at No. 4 this week, became the most-played track on Australian radio and has crossed 48 million streams on Spotify alone. Fawaz described AI as a tool and added generative AI credits to the listing only after the criticism started.
AI can still touch a track. It just cannot write it or sing on it.
The new bar is specific. A recording qualifies only if “humans wrote the song and performed the lead vocal and the primary instruments,” ARIA said. Mastering, drum machines and auto-tune are all still fine. Anything using generative AI has to be substantially human made, has to be produced with licensed AI services, and must raise no stream or chart manipulation concerns. Artists now declare their AI use when they submit a song.
ARIA can pull a chart position and take back a No. 1 award later
Enforcement runs backwards as well as forwards. ARIA can refuse an entry, remove a recording in advance or retrospectively, redo chart positions, withdraw accreditations and revoke an ARIA No. 1 Award, including asking for the trophy back. AI-generated tracks are also locked out of the ARIA Awards. Artists and their representatives can contest an exclusion and submit evidence that a track clears the rules.Australia is following a template, not writing one. The rules come from principles the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry published in July, which more than 20 official chart programmes are adopting, with rollouts across Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. Sweden pulled an AI-made song from its charts earlier this year. ARIA chief executive Annabelle Herd has asked Australian radio to write similar rules of its own, which is the real test given how the Fawaz track spread.That track, by ARIA’s own reading, probably would not clear the new bar. It just cleared the old one for four months first.