Apple Music ai_transparencies Artwork value for AI cover art

For AI-generated album artwork, the Apple Music specification asks you to add an <ai_transparency> tag with the value Artwork inside <ai_transparencies>. The tag applies to static and motion graphic artwork, it is optional, and if you omit it Apple assumes none.

The rule comes from the Apple Music Specification 5.3.26 page (April 2026), read 2026-10-01. The disclosure is a field in your delivery metadata, so an image file from any generator carries no such field by itself.

What exactly does the Artwork value say?

The spec says that when AI is used to generate a material portion of the content, you disclose it with the <ai_transparencies> tag. For album artwork the value is Artwork. The section is marked optional and may be updated later.

The spec does not define "material portion" with a percentage in the text I read, so the judgement is yours. Cover art made by prompting an image model is the clear case.

Does a generated cover file record that it was AI-made?

Not as an Apple Music field. Sume's image docs say sume/auto is a Sume-only value where Sume picks the family and "never discloses which one ran", so the job record is not a substitute for the tag. Keep your own note of which images were generated and set the tag when you build the delivery metadata.

A reasonable habit: store the Sume job id next to the cover in your release record, then map every generated cover to Artwork in your metadata template. See content credentials after download for checking what a delivered file actually carries.

Where should I keep the generated cover?

Sume-hosted media is served from media.sume.com and, per the structured-output docs, "does not expire". The docs add that a durable URL is also public. Store the URL against your own record, and copy the file into your delivery package since Apple wants a file with a checksum, not a link.

What about motion artwork?

The Apple tag covers Motion Graphic Artwork too. Timeline compose takes one still and one video and returns one MP4 with both on screen. Whether such a file meets Apple's motion artwork requirements is a separate check against Apple's asset guide, which this post does not cover. If the motion cover came from AI, the same Artwork value applies.

How does the tag sit next to the artwork file entry?

The spec's album metadata example lists the cover under <artwork_files> with <file_name>, <size> and an md5 <checksum>. The disclosure is a sibling concern: the file entry describes the bytes, the Artwork value describes how they were made. Re-exporting or resizing the generated image changes the checksum but not the answer to whether AI made it.