Did you know that an estimated 25% of the music on Spotify is now fully AI-generated and rarely labeled as such? As artificial intelligence accelerates into the creative world, musicians and policymakers are sounding the alarm about what this shift means for artists, audiences, and the future of work.

In the latest episode of Policy 360, “AI Music Is Singing Like a Canary in a Coal Mine,” Grammy-nominated musician Tift Merritt sits down with David Hoffman and Anna Gassman-Pines to explore these urgent questions. In a powerful moment, Merritt reacts to hearing an AI-generated song created “in her style.” Her response is raw, honest, and emblematic of the broader anxiety many artists feel as AI tools become more capable—and more commercially embedded.

Merritt shares why policy advocacy has become central to her work, emphasizing how AI-generated music is already eroding artists’ ability to sustain viable careers. The conversation expands beyond the music industry, revealing how these disruptions foreshadow challenges across the entire labor market.

Policy 360 is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon.

This episode is part of the broader AI and the Creative Economy project, led by tech policy expert Liz Sparacino and supported by the Duke Initiative for Science & Society, the Franklin Humanities Institute, the Social Science Research Institute, and Bass Connections. Together, this interdisciplinary team is examining how society can harness technological innovation without sacrificing ethics, transparency, or human livelihoods.