ARIA is banning AI generated music from the official charts, and one Madonna cover started it all

A Queensland producer's AI assisted cover of a Madonna classic has just changed how Australian music charts work, permanently.

From the chart dated 31 August, ARIA is excluding songs made wholly or mostly by AI. Tracks can still use AI as a tool, but the human contribution has to be "substantial" or they're locked out.

The catalyst was Josh Fawaz's cover of "Like a Prayer", which climbed to number four on two separate ARIA charts and became one of the most played tracks on Australian radio in July. Then Fawaz updated the Spotify credits to reveal the vocals and drums were AI generated, and the backlash started.

ARIA chief executive Annabelle Herd didn't mince words. Artists using AI tools is fine, she said, but "music generated wholesale by services built on artists' recordings is a different matter". Translation: don't try to pass off a machine cover as a genuine performance and expect a chart placing.

The new eligibility rules borrow from guidance published in July by the body representing the global recorded music industry, which is pushing more than 20 chart programs worldwide to draw the same line. ARIA is one of the first to actually enforce it.

The catch is obvious the moment you sit with it. Where exactly is the line between "substantial human input" and "AI did the heavy lifting"? A producer who writes lyrics and hums a melody into an AI tool that does the rest sounds a lot like Fawaz's situation, minus the getting caught part.

Fawaz, for his part, still maintains he used AI "as a tool", which is doing some heroic lifting for a track where the vocals weren't his.

Expect this to get messier before it gets cleaner. Chart bodies overseas are watching how ARIA polices the grey area, and every producer with a laptop and a vocal model is about to test exactly how far "substantially human made" stretches.

If you're an artist wondering whether your AI assisted demo still counts, the safest answer right now is to assume it doesn't, and ask ARIA before you release it.