Australia's most played song on radio this week draws AI…

A cover of Madonna’s 1989 hit Like a Prayer, produced by Queensland-based DJ Josh Fawaz, has climbed to the top of Australia's radio airplay charts, sparking significant controversy within the music industry. While the track has garnered millions of views and widespread commercial success, critics allege that Fawaz utilized artificial intelligence-powered audio engineering software to generate the song, leading to heated debates regarding ethics and artistic authenticity.

What happened

The track, released by Fawaz, currently holds the No. 1 spot on the national radio airplay charts and is performing strongly across several ARIA charts. The backlash was spearheaded by music producer Mitch Thomas, known as Needs No Sleep, who criticized the use of AI tools to generate vocals, lyrics, and instrumentation. Thomas argued that these tools are trained on copyrighted material without the consent of original artists, labeling the practice as "cheating" and comparable to the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports.

Toby Walsh, chief scientist at the UNSW AI Institute, supported the industry's outrage, noting that AI models are built by ingesting human work without compensation. Conversely, Fawaz has defended his process, suggesting he uses AI as a tool and emphasizing his long history as a producer. While Fawaz has not explicitly confirmed or denied the specific use of generative AI for this track, he maintains that his creative process is not "that deep."

Despite the controversy, APRA AMCOS confirmed that Madonna and her co-writer retain rights to the underlying composition and will receive standard publishing royalties for the cover. Industry experts like Professor Samantha Bennett have called for mandatory labeling of AI-generated music, noting that while automated music production has a historical precedent, the lack of transparency prevents listeners from making informed choices about supporting human artists versus machine-generated content.