On 2 August 2026 Article 50 of the European Union's AI Act — the transparency obligations — came into force. For the music business it means three things.
First, providers of general-purpose models must publish a sufficiently detailed summary of the content used for training. Second, synthetic audio must carry machine-readable marking. Third, providers must operate a process that detects and respects rightsholders' opt-outs from training.
Four disclosure categories have settled in practice: human-authored, AI-assisted, AI-collaborated, and fully AI-generated. The Act does not ban AI music — it requires you to say which is which.