Spotify's AI remix and cover tool is a paid Premium add-on

Spotify is building a tool that lets fans create covers and remixes of songs from participating artists, and the company will sell access to it as a paid add-on to its existing Premium subscription. Spotify and Universal Music Group announced licensing agreements that allow the platform to launch the feature, covering both recorded music rights and music publishing rights for participating catalogs.

The company says the tool is built around consent, credit and compensation for artists and songwriters who take part. No price or launch date has been announced.

What Spotify's AI remix and cover tool will do for fans

The feature is designed to let listeners take songs from artists who have opted in and create new versions using generative AI - software that produces new content by working from existing material. A fan could use the tool to record a cover of a song in a different style, or build a remix that reworks the original track.

Spotify says the agreements cover both recorded music rights and music publishing rights for each participating catalog. That structure matters because it applies to the actual studio recording and to the underlying song composition - the melody and lyrics - separately. Both sets of rights are included in the licensed use.

Beyond regular streaming royalties, the tool is designed to give artists and songwriters a new income stream funded by the add-on's revenue. Artists and songwriters in participating catalogs would be credited on fan-made works and would receive royalties from the pool the add-on service generates.

Which companies have signed licensing agreements

Universal Music Group was the first to reach a deal with Spotify for the tool. Merlin and Kobalt followed with their own agreements. Believe announced its agreement on Oct. 20, according to Billboard, bringing a fourth company into the program and adding another catalog to the music fans will be able to work with.

Billboard reports that Believe joined Universal Music Group, Merlin and Kobalt in agreeing to license recorded music and publishing rights for the AI remixing feature. The four agreements together cover a range of catalogs across different parts of the recorded music business.

Whether additional label groups will participate has not been confirmed. No further agreements have been announced publicly beyond the four companies.

How artist consent is built into the program

Spotify has said from the start that no artist's music can be included in the tool without that artist's agreement. The company describes the program as grounded in three linked principles: consent before any song is included, credit given on any work created from it, and compensation paid back to rights holders from the royalties the service generates.

Believe and TuneCore use a two-step consent process for their artists. Under that arrangement, artists first choose whether to opt in to AI programs at all. Those who agree are then shown the Spotify remixing partnership as a separate option and can decline that specific program if they choose. The design gives artists a clear decision at each step rather than enrolling them in a bundle of uses at once.

That opt-in structure means that even an artist whose label has signed a licensing deal with Spotify can keep their music out of the tool by declining at the second step. It is a detail that could matter to artists weighing whether their label's participation affects them directly.

What Spotify's co-CEOs said - and did not say - about pricing

Spotify's co-CEOs told Billboard that fans who want the tool will pay for it as an add-on to their existing Premium subscription. Beyond confirming that add-on model, they declined to discuss pricing, saying only that the tool would create new revenue for the industry and for creators.

"We think we're the right company to do this," co-CEO Gustav Söderström said, according to Billboard.

No official announcement has named a cost or a release date. Until Spotify publishes a formal offer, what Premium subscribers will pay for access to the tool and when it will become available remain open questions.

What the subscriber numbers say about the tool's reach

Spotify had 306 million Premium subscribers at the end of the third quarter, according to Billboard. The company expects to reach 316 million subscribers by year-end, Billboard reported. The add-on model means the tool would sit on top of the base Premium price, and subscribers would choose separately whether to pay for it.

Billboard reports that Spotify has paid $70 billion to music industry rights holders since its founding. The company describes the AI remixing tool as a way for artists to generate revenue from AI rather than stand apart from it. The royalty pool created by the add-on would be separate from what artists already earn from streams.

For listeners, the range of songs available through the tool will grow only as more artists and rights holders choose to participate. At launch, the catalog will be limited to the music covered by the agreements already in place with Universal Music Group, Merlin, Kobalt and Believe. The more companies and individual artists that opt in, the larger the selection fans will have to work with.

What is still not known

Spotify has not set a price for the add-on and has not announced a launch date. The co-CEOs declined to give a cost figure when asked by Billboard. How royalties from the tool will be divided among artists, songwriters and rights holders has also not been detailed in any official statement.

The consent-first design means the tool's catalog will expand only as individual artists choose to take part. That makes the full scope of what fans will be able to do difficult to predict before the tool launches. What has been established is the framework: a paid add-on for Premium users, artist consent required before any song can be included, royalties flowing back to rights holders, and licensing agreements with Universal Music Group, Merlin, Kobalt and Believe already in place.