A Swedish-language folk-pop song, "Jag vet, du är inte min" by an act called Jacub, climbed to the top of Spotify's Swedish Top 50 in January 2026 but was left off the country's official singles chart, Sverigetopplistan. IFPI Sweden, which runs the chart rules, said the track does not qualify because songs that are mainly AI-generated are not eligible.
Reporting by the journalist Emanuel Karlsten showed how the project was put together. The artist had no media appearances or tour dates, so he followed the song's registrations with the Swedish rights body STIM and found people tied to the Danish publisher Stellar. Five authors are credited: Stellar co-founders Morten Winther and Ryan Peterson, an intern named Malthe Carlsen, the Swedish AI illustrator Niklas Engvall, and Jacob Berg, whose name gave the act its spelling and who does not appear to work for Stellar. Two of the credited people work in Stellar's AI department.
“Our rule is that if it is a song that is mainly AI-generated, it does not have the right to be on the top list.”
Ludvig Werner, head of IFPI Sweden, to NME · nme.com ↗
The numbers differ by outlet. Music Business Worldwide counted more than 6.3 million Spotify plays and roughly 935,800 monthly listeners, mostly in Sweden, with a No. 14 placing on Spotify's Norway list; NME wrote of more than five million streams. Music Business Worldwide also pointed to a second apparently AI act, Ingrid Eikeland, whose song "Søsken" has passed 102,000 streams and was registered by the same team, which Karlsten reads as a test of the Norwegian market. Stellar says it has seen nearly 100 songs trying to copy the approach.
Stellar and the team behind Jacub reject the picture of a faceless tech firm pushing a button. They describe AI as one tool inside a process steered by human songwriters and producers, set it apart from mass-uploaded "AI music slop", and say no paid advertising was used. They denied that their prompts referred to the Swedish artist Albin Lee Meldau. Asked whether Jacub is a real person, the team said the answer depends on how the term is defined, adding that the project is carried by people whose feelings and experiences are behind the music.
Stock illustration used on MBW's report of the chart exclusion
Shutterstock AI · Image: Music Business Worldwide
The case follows other AI chart episodes that NME recalled, among them Breaking Rust topping a Billboard country chart and the Velvet Sundown hoax. It also arrives four months after STIM launched what it called the first collective AI licence, and in the same week Bandcamp banned AI-generated music.
IFPI Sweden's position is simple as the outlets relay it: the song remains visible on Spotify's own ranking, but the official chart applies its own eligibility rule, and a song judged mainly AI-generated does not clear it.
Sources · 3