Spotify Removes Over 50 Million Spam Tracks From Recommendations in 2026

Spotify has removed more than 50 million spam and slop tracks from its recommendations in 2026, the streaming service disclosed on October 24, according to watch.impress.co.jp. The company reworked its recommendation system after finding that low-engagement tracks often matched spam or slop.

Spotify's spam and slop detection combines listener engagement and feedback, upload patterns, multiple external AI detection sources and metadata analysis. In-house playlist editors now apply criteria to avoid selecting spam and slop.

Profiles suspected of being AI-generated display an "AI Persona" badge, which has been applied to several thousand profiles so far. Tracks from artists with an AI Persona badge are generally excluded from editorial playlists and algorithmic recommendations unless a listener follows them voluntarily.

Spotify also introduced "AI Credits", which show which parts of a production — instruments or roles — used AI. Tens of thousands of credits have been registered and are displayed daily. The "Artist Page Protection" feature is in beta and lets artists pre-confirm and approve new releases credited to their name; it is scheduled to reach all artists by the end of 2026.

In April 2026, Spotify introduced the "Verified by Spotify" badge for real artists. More than 300,000 artists have received it since its launch, over 70% of them independent artists. In 2024, the company introduced a monetization policy intended to make it harder for spam and slop to earn revenue.