Sweden Bans AI-Created Song From Official Music Charts

Sweden has banned an AI-created song from appearing on its official music charts, marking a significant move in the ongoing debate over artificial intelligence in the music industry. The decision highlights growing concerns around authenticity, creative ownership, and fairness in chart rankings. As AI-generated music becomes more advanced, regulators and industry bodies are increasingly challenged to define clear rules that balance innovation with the protection of human artistry.

A track that has clocked millions of streams across Sweden has been ruled ineligible for the country’s official music charts after it emerged that the song was created using artificial intelligence.

Titled I Know, You’re Not Mine (Jag vet, du är inte min), the song currently dominates Spotify’s list of Sweden’s most-played tracks. Despite its popularity, the artist behind it is not human. The performer, known as Jacub, is entirely digital, prompting Sweden’s music industry body to exclude the track from its chart rankings.

The song itself is a gentle folk-pop ballad centred on heartbreak and lost love.

Driven by a delicate finger-picked acoustic guitar, it paints a picture of emotional late nights, broken vows and fading dreams. “Your steps in the night, I hear them go,” Jacub sings in an eerie, emotive tone.

The lyrics continue with vivid imagery of a relationship unraveling, standing in the rain, promises dissolving, and the painful realisation that love is no longer mutual.

Within weeks of its release, the track surged to become Sweden’s biggest hit of 2026 so far, surpassing five million Spotify streams and securing the top spot on the Swedish Top 50.

Yet as the song gained traction, journalists began questioning who Jacub really was. There were no social media accounts, interviews, live performances or tour announcements linked to the artist.

Investigative reporter Emanuel Karlsten uncovered that the song was registered to executives associated with Stellar Music, a Denmark-based publishing and marketing company. Notably, two of those individuals are part of the firm’s AI division. Responding to Karlsten’s findings, the producers, operating under the name Team Jacub, sent a detailed email defending their work and challenging the idea that the song was created at the push of a button.

They emphasised that Jacub’s music involved seasoned songwriters and producers who invested emotion, effort and financial backing into the project. According to the team, AI functioned as a supportive tool rather than a replacement, operating within what they described as a human-led creative process. To them, the song’s millions of streams demonstrated genuine artistic merit and lasting appeal.

When pressed on whether Jacub could be considered a real person, the producers offered a reflective answer, suggesting the definition itself was open to interpretation. They described Jacub as an artistic concept shaped by real people, arguing that the emotions and stories conveyed are authentic because they originate from human experience.

That explanation failed to convince IFPI Sweden, the organisation responsible for the country’s official charts, which moved to block the song from chart inclusion. IFPI’s head, Ludvig Werner, stated that tracks primarily generated by AI are not eligible for placement on the national rankings. The decision comes as Sweden positions itself at the forefront of the global AI economy, even as concerns grow that artificial intelligence could reduce earnings for local music creators by as much as 25 percent within two years.

Last September, music rights body STIM introduced a new licensing model allowing technology companies to train AI systems on copyrighted music in exchange for royalty payments. At the time, STIM representative Lina Heyman described the initiative as the world’s first collective AI licence, designed to encourage innovation without sacrificing human creativity.

Sweden’s firm stance contrasts with the more flexible policies of international chart authorities such as Billboard. AI-generated songs have appeared on some of Billboard’s specialist charts, as eligibility is based on listener engagement rather than how a track is made. By comparison, independent music platform Bandcamp has adopted a tougher approach, banning music that is largely or entirely produced by AI, including tracks using synthetic voices.

As AI-generated music is predicted to grow into a multi-billion-pound industry, Sweden’s handling of the Jacub controversy signals a clear message. For now, as technology reshapes music creation, it is human artists, not machines, who remain centre stage.

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Source: BBC‍