AI chart eligibility stopped being a policy debate on 31 August 2026, the date ARIA’s updated Charts Code of Practice takes effect in Australia. ARIA means the Australian Recording Industry Association, which compiles the country’s official charts.
Wholly AI-generated tracks are out. AI-assisted recordings stay in. The rule was published on 25 August and applies from the chart dated Monday 31 August.
The ban is not the interesting part. How ARIA decides is.
Three categories, one line through the middle
ARIA’s chart changes FAQ sorts every release into three buckets:
- AI-generated. Not eligible. Generative AI produced the recording, or the primary portion of its creative elements. An AI lead vocal or AI key instrumental performance puts a track here.
- AI-assisted. Eligible. Humans wrote the song and performed the lead vocal and primary instruments, and generative AI did something minor on top. AI backing vocals under a human lead is ARIA’s worked example.
- AI in production. Eligible. AI mastering, stem separation, AI drum machines, reverb, and instrument patches a person then plays.
Human mixing and mastering do not move a track out of the first bucket. Albums are judged track by track, and an ineligible track does not count toward the release.
The enforcement mechanism is a form field
Ask ARIA how it will identify an AI-generated recording and the FAQ answers in three words: “You tell us.”
Every release submitted to the ARIA survey now carries a declaration about generative AI use, and that declaration is what ARIA works from. Only where a credible concern is raised does it go back to the rightsholder. Four consequences belong in your release checklist:
- Chart eligibility is decided by a metadata answer, not by an audio classifier.
- The answer comes from whoever submits the release, which for most independents means the distributor’s delivery form.
- ARIA can act retrospectively. It may decline to survey a track, remove it from published charts, adjust positions, withdraw accreditations, and revoke an ARIA #1 Award. Ineligible recordings are also barred from the ARIA Awards.
- A re-recorded version that replaces the AI elements with human performance counts as a new recording, and does not inherit the earlier version’s chart history.
That last point is the expensive one. Get the declaration wrong and you do not repair the asset. You start again at zero.
What ARIA left on the table
IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, published six criteria on 30 July 2026. ARIA adopted the human-authorship, manipulation, legal-compliance and labelling tests, and declined the one asking whether the AI service used was “properly authorised and lawful,” on the grounds that major-label AI licensing is still moving. Treat that as deferred, not dropped: when licensing settles, the tool you generated with becomes a chart question too.
Not only an Australian rule
IFPI is applying the same framework to the 28 markets whose charts it runs directly: the Official MENA Charts across 13 markets from Morocco to Oman, the Official Southeast Asia Charts covering Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, the Official South Africa Chart, and eight Latin American charts including CAPIF in Argentina, Pro-Musica in Brazil and AMPROFON in Mexico.
A further 24 national chart programmes are in the rollout, among them Circle Chart in South Korea, SNEP in France and FIMI in Italy. ARIA is simply first to publish implementation detail.
What to change before your next delivery
- Decide the category per track, not per release, and record the decision.
- Treat the AI declaration as a rights document. The same disclosure already decides whether TIDAL pays royalties, and it feeds the AI-Generated and AI-Assisted consumer labels agreed on 10 July.
- Keep the evidence: stems, dated project files, takes, performer credits. ARIA’s disputes route runs on evidence.
- Check who fills the field on your behalf. If a distributor auto-fills or leaves it blank, a default is setting your chart eligibility.
Australia is a useful place to watch this land, because local artists already take only 9.5% of streams there. A chart place lost to a mis-set checkbox is not a rounding error.
At InterSpace Distribution the AI disclosure is collected at intake rather than at delivery, so the answer travels with the recording before it reaches a chart body or a DSP. It is a small field. It now decides whether a track counts.
