Latest news with #TheVelvetSundown
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
AI ‘Band' the Velvet Sundown Used Suno, Is an ‘Art Hoax,' Spokesperson Admits
The Velvet Sundown, an obviously fictional 'band' that's gone viral after somehow racking up more than 500,000 monthly listeners on Spotify out of nowhere, used the generative-AI platform Suno in the creation of their songs, and consider themselves an 'art hoax,' a band spokesperson reveals to Rolling Stone. On their X account, the 'band' fervently and repeatedly denied any AI usage after multiple media outlets reported on their mysterious popularity — but pseudonymous band spokesperson and 'adjunct' member Andrew Frelon now admits, 'It's marketing. It's trolling. People before, they didn't care about what we did, and now suddenly, we're talking to Rolling Stone, so it's like, 'Is that wrong?'' 'Personally, I'm interested in art hoaxes,' Frelon continues. 'The Leeds 13, a group of art students in the U.K., made, like, fake photos of themselves spending scholarship money at a beach or something like that, and it became a huge scandal. I think that stuff's really interesting.… We live in a world now where things that are fake have sometimes even more impact than things that are real. And that's messed up, but that's the reality that we face now. So it's like, 'Should we ignore that reality? Should we ignore these things that kind of exist on a continuum of real versus fake or kind of a blend between the two? Or should we dive into it and just let it be the emerging native language of the internet?''In the phone conversation Tuesday morning, Frelon originally maintained that AI was used only in brainstorming for the music, then admitted to the use of Suno but 'not in the final product,' and finally came to acknowledge that at least some songs ('I don't want to say which ones') are Suno-generated. 'I haven't admitted that to anyone else,' Frelon says. He also acknowledged employing Suno's 'Persona' feature — the same one Timbaland is using with his controversial AI artist TaTa — to maintain a consistent singer's voice across songs, although he continues to claim that's not the case on every track. More from Rolling Stone Timbaland's New Artist Is Young, Photogenic - and Not Human ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus Working on an AI-Assisted Musical A Bullet Killed Him. AI Brought Him Back to Life in Court Some observers have wondered whether some kind of playlist manipulation was used to build Velvet Sundown's Spotify listenership, but Frelon dodged that question. ' I'm not running the Spotify backend stuff, so I can't super speak to exactly how that happened,' he says. 'I know we got on some playlists that just have like tons of followers, and it seems to have spiraled from there.' Did Frelon and his associates use playlists of their own to boost the process? 'I don't have an answer that I can give to you for that because I'm not involved,' he says. 'And I don't want to say something that's not true.' The Velvet Sundown enigma began in June, when two of the band's albums suddenly appeared on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, and other streaming services. A band that no one had ever heard of, and didn't seem to have any sort of digital footprint, suddenly had hundreds of thousands of listeners for music that the band described as 'fusing Seventies psychedelic textures with cinematic alt-pop and dreamy analog soul.' But how real was it? The songs, like 'Dust on the Wind,' felt like generic reproductions of Seventies rock, and 'photographs' of the group obviously had the amber-encased glow of AI-generated content. On Reddit, two posters called out what one poster called 'a completely fake band'; musician and writer Chris Dalla Riva questioned their existence on TikTok; and the streaming service Deezer noted that 'some tracks on this album may have been created using artificial intelligence.' The site Music Ally determined that most of the Spotify playlists which featured the band came from just four Spotify accounts — and no one could explain how the band's catalog ended up on a playlist of songs evoking the Vietnam War. Early this week, the 'band' pushed back on its X account, claiming it was 'absolutely crazy that so-called 'journalists' keep pushing the lazy, baseless theory that the Velvet Sundown is 'AI-generated' with zero evidence.… This is not a joke. This is our music, written in long, sweaty nights in a cramped bungalow in California with real instruments, real minds and real soul.' ('Then make an appearance on live TV,' responded one person on X. 'Proof [sic] it make a real video,' replied another.) Spotify, for one, has no rules against AI music. In the past, says Glenn McDonald, a former data alchemist at Spotify, 'fake listeners were a larger problem than fake music. It might have flipped.' McDonald feels the Velvet Sundown's prominence on that platform is the result of several factors: Artists and content creators are able to pay for more exposure on playlists, he says, and the company's recommendations systems have moved 'away from understandable algorithms with strong grounding in actual human listening and communities' and toward AI-driven systems that 'can pick songs for recommendations based on characteristics of their audio.' Added together, McDonald says, these factors 'increase the lottery-like dynamics of the system so that there are fewer reasons why a fake band couldn't be successful. Most fake bands still won't be successful, and of course nobody notices when an AI band gets no listeners, but there are no protections against it happening, and probably from Spotify's business point of view it's not even clear that this is a bad thing to be 'protected' against.' (A spokesperson for Spotify declined to comment.) As for the viral attention Velvet Sundown has garnered, 'it's because they're AI, not because the music's great,' says one veteran A&R executive, who asked for anonymity. 'It doesn't feel authentic. That said, it's clearly just a matter of time before AI creates a genuine hit song. Not convinced yet it will create a sustainable hit artist. My prediction is that a hit song will appear that the public loves. At that point, someone will reveal it to be AI. No one will care because they love the song.' The Velvet Sundown's Frelon, meanwhile, says that music fans need to learn to accept AI tools, calling the fear of them 'super overwrought.' 'I respect that people have really strong emotions about this,' he says. 'But I think it's important that we allow artists to experiment with new technologies and new tools, try things out, and not freak out at people just because they're using a program or not using a program. People have this idea that you have to please everybody and you have to follow the rules. And that's not how music and culture progress. Music and culture progressed by people doing weird experiments and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. And that's kind of the spirit that we're [embracing].' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
Metro
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Mystery over rock band 'that doesn't exist' with over 600,000 streams
A mysterious new band is climbing the charts on Spotify, racking up over half a million listens in just a few days. The Velvet Sundown sound familiar, and their songs are perfectly listenable, if not the next Sweet Jane. But they're causing controversy because people think they're entirely AI-generated, and you can see why. They either don't exist at all, or they're pretending to be AI for a marketing gimmick. According to their 'verified artist' Spotify profile, the band was 'formed by singer and mellotron player Gabe Farrow, guitarist Lennie West, Milo Rains, who crafts the band's textured synth sounds, and free-spirited percussionist Orion 'Rio' Del Mar'. Only problem is, none of them have any social media presence or evidence of existing outside of this bio, and the band itself only started posting on X and Instragram three days ago. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Not quite what you'd expect if they'd been gigging and promoting themselves for years before their big break. Their official Instagram account references the controversy with a video captioned: 'They said we're not real. Maybe you aren't either.' Equally enigmatically, their bio reads: 'A band you might have heard once in a dream. This one has only just begun.' But their online presence is even odder than this, as there are several different accounts claiming to be them on both X and Instagram, one of which has been very outspoken insisting they are not AI. They wrote: 'This is not a joke. This is our music, written in long, sweaty nights in a cramped bungalow in California with real instruments, real minds, and real soul. Every chord, every lyric, every mistake — HUMAN.' But the plot thickens, as a different Velvet Sundown account on X (the one linked to in the band's Spotify profile) indicated the first account wasn't even them at all. They wrote: 'To all the journalists who wrote about us — Thank you for listening. However, these are the only official pages of the band. All others are reflections, echoes, projections. Don't amplify what isn't us.' The possibly fake X account has more followers than the official X account, and also started posting first, so you can see why people are getting confused about all of this. 🚨 Absolutely crazy that so-called 'journalists' keep pushing the lazy, baseless theory that The Velvet Sundown is 'AI-generated' with zero evidence. Not a single one of these "writers" has reached out, visited a show, or listened beyond the Spotify algorithm. 1/ — The Velvet Sundown (Band) – Official 🎸🎶🎧 (@Velvet_Sundown) June 29, 2025 We asked to speak to the people behind the (fake?) X account and they agreed to talk, but did not yet reply when we asked if it could be a video call. The band also has at least five Instagram accounts, one of which is filled with what looks like AI generated images. These images are part of the reason the band has been accused of being fake, with oddities in the images like fudged fingers or a guitar with disappearing strings. But again, the band now say this is not their official account, which has only one promo video on the grid. Deezer, a rival music streaming service, has tagged the Velvet Sundown's music as being AI generated. This had nothing to do with the images or promotion surrounding them, but was down to analysis of the music itself. Aurelien Herault, Chief Innovation Officer at Deezer, told Metro: We have trained our detection tool using datasets from a number of generative models, including Suno and Udio, which means that our detection tool is able to recognise the signals and sounds in fully AI-generated music that you don't find in authentic tracks. 'We have also made significant progress in training our detection tool to identify AI tracks even without a specific dataset to train on. 'Thanks to our tool, we are confident that the album pages that are currently tagged generated by AI on our platform are generated by AI.' Their software flagged The Velvet Sundown as being AI before the contoversy erupted, and so a label is now shown to users warning 'AI generated content. Some tracks on this album may have been created using artificial intelligence.' It's growing, and Deezer say they now see 20,000 tracks which are 100% AI generated submitted every single day, which has doubled from the start of the year. Mr Herault told Metro that artifically generated music now makes up approximately 18% of all tracks delivered to the platform. He said: 'At Deezer we want to prioritise revenues going to real artists, which is why we remove fully AI-generated tracks from algorithmic or editorial recommendations. 'We don't believe AI music is inherently good or bad, but we believe music fans have a right to know what they are listening to, which is why we opt for a transparent approach and tag AI-generated music on Deezer, in order to build trust with our users.' As the tech continues to improve, we will no doubt get tracks which sound great and are made by AI, at the same time as becomes more integrated in filmmaking and yes, maybe takes your white collar job. Spotify has been investing heavily in AI, and you can now use it to make you playlists or listen to a DJ curating songs for you. But it has also been accused of adding AI generated music to popular playlists like Ambient Chill and Peaceful Piano, without it being obvious to users. The company has not commented on this, but previously said it was 'categorically untrue' that it was creating AI music itself to fill playlists. Instagram has introduced a tag to show if something is made using AI, and videos made by Google Veo are watermarked. However, the industry standard is less clear when it comes to AI music, with Deezer currently the only streaming platform to tag it as such. One way scammers might benefit from uploading AI music to streaming platforms is by getting enough streams to earn them royalties. There are even so-called 'streaming farms' where tracks are listened to over and over again to try and game the system. So a song could be made by AI and listened to by bots on repeat, with humans barely part of the musical process at all. It would be too obvious if an unknown artist suddenly racked up millions of streams (much like with the Velvet Sundown). So to get around this, fraudsters flood streaming platforms with lots of fake songs which are each streamed just a few thousands times: enough to make money, but less likely to make people suspicious. Explaining the problem, Mr Herault said: If an artist is able to gain a significant number of users streaming their music, they then become entitled to a bigger share of the royalty pool. More Trending 'This is true whether an artist is using AI or not; the only difference being that AI music is significantly easier to produce.' He said that fraudulent streams 'are often generated by streaming farms or bots, which repeatedly 'listen' to tracks in order to inflate their streams and increase their share of the royalty pool.' Deezer said that up to 70% of streams of fully AI tracks are fraudulent, though currently AI tracks only make up 0.5% of overall streams. The company said: 'When detecting stream manipulation of any kind, Deezer excludes the streams from the royalty payments.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Legendary 70s rock band tease reunion tour after retiring over frontman's serious injury MORE: Rock star shares hospital bed update after 'very aggressive' cancer diagnosis MORE: I worked at Wimbledon for 40 years — now a machine has taken my job
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
An AI-generated rock band topped 500,000 listeners on Spotify
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. Generative AI software isn't just for creating text, photos, and videos. AI can also make audio, which requires synthesizing speech, background audio, and music for AI video services like Veo 3, or creating music that sounds like something you'd stream on Spotify or Apple Music. Fuzz AI is an example of the latter, a music streaming experience with AI at the center. While I don't mind artists embracing AI tools, whether via video or song, I want to be forewarned that a creation has been altered or created with AI. I can then decide to experience it knowing that I might run into AI-generated content or AI slop. Today's Top Deals Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 Not all people using AI will be quick to admit they're doing so with their art, though. The latest example is an AI band called The Velvet Sundown, which doesn't exist in real life. Whoever generated them managed to reach 500,000 listeners on Spotify in just a few weeks. According to Ars Technica, some Spotify users posted messages on social media about a week ago, warning that The Velvet Sundown might be an AI band. AI band in recommended with 300k monthly with only two release's (both 2025) byu/VisitCharming4446 intruespotify These posts went up on social media a couple of weeks after The Velvet Sundown joined the streaming service. During that time, the fake band topped 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. At the time of this writing, the AI band has over 550,000 monthly listeners. It's not like people are actively looking for the band. More likely, Spotify's algorithms surface songs from The Velvet Sundown's two albums. That's how they reach thousands of people who might listen to the songs without realizing or caring that it's AI-generated content. Spotify doesn't label the band as AI. The artist page for The Velvet Sundown has a 'Verified Artist' checkmark. The band is also present on Deezer, which has a tougher stance on AI. The band's bio on Deezer does say: 'Some tracks on this album may have been created using artificial intelligence.' Here's what the band's description read on Spotify, at least until a few days ago: The Velvet Sundown don't just play music they conjure worlds. Somewhere between the ghost of Laurel Canyon and the echo of a Berlin warehouse, this four-piece band bends time, fusing 1970s psychedelic textures with cinematic alt-pop and dreamy analog soul. Their sound is all velvet reverb, swirling organs, tremolo-soaked guitar lines, and voices that sound like they've been unearthed from forgotten reels of tape. The AI band has two albums out on Spotify and plans to release a third soon. That might be a dead giveaway that we're not looking at a real band. It so happens that John Oliver tackled AI slop on a recent Last Week Tonight episode, which included an AI band called The Devil Inside that made no fewer than 10 albums in the past two years. Ars points out that the two fake bands have many songs that reference dust and wind, suggesting they might share a common AI model. There's no established connection between the two AI bands, though. While there's no official confirmation that The Velvet Sundown is an AI band, there is more evidence that there aren't any human members. The band created an Instagram profile a few days ago as people were questioning its existence on social media. The Instagram account features photos showing the band's members that appear to be created using AI. One image has four people sitting at a table, celebrating the success of their first two albums on Spotify. The 'photo' looks good, but features telltale signs of AI. Just look at the number of burgers and plates, the strange position of the glasses, and that unmistakable AI look of humans. Look at the symmetrical faces and the image's overall smoothness. You can use AI to make lifelike images, like the new Higgsfield Soul tool, assuming you're aware of it or have access to it. But one wouldn't be able to hide an AI band for long. Again, there's nothing wrong with AI music on streaming services like Spotify. After all, The Beatles used AI to launch a hit song. But listeners should at least be warned that they're about to hear AI-made songs. Some people might listen to it regardless of labels or warnings, while others might skip it. What's certain is that AI bands like The Velvet Sundown are taking the place of real artists in Spotify playlists, depriving them of revenue. John Oliver's full segment on AI slop and why it's dangerous follows below: Don't Miss: Today's deals: Nintendo Switch games, $5 smart plugs, $150 Vizio soundbar, $100 Beats Pill speaker, more More Top Deals Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2025: Get $2,000+ free See the
Android Authority
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Android Authority
Poll: Do you like AI music?
Like a modern version of the tree-falling-in-the-woods conundrum, AI is giving us new philosophical questions. For example, if AI music sounds genuine, is it okay to enjoy it? This debate has gained momentum recently, as a new band called The Velvet Sundown just reached over 500,000 listens on Spotify. The problem is that they don't actually exist. Everything about them — from their echoey, classic rock-inspired tracks to their Instagram pictures — appears to be AI-generated. I've been listening to the songs and can see why opinions are divided. The sound is melodic and slick, if a bit bland and samey. As background music, it's not offensive, and I'd argue I've heard plenty of worse tunes from human artists. Honestly, if one of these songs came up in a mix, I doubt I'd have immediately realized it was machine-made. Do you like AI music? 0 votes Yes, some of it is good NaN % Not so far, but I'm open to it NaN % No, I find it soulless NaN % I haven't heard any yet NaN % To be clear, none of this means it's okay. There are obvious implications for artists and the music industry, and it feels unsettling that this 'band' is being presented as real online. But setting that aside for a moment, we're curious about your honest reaction to AI-generated music, because The Velvet Sundown is far from the only example in this new era. We've already seen similar debates play out in visual art and writing, but music feels even more personal. When you listen to a track you love, you're connecting with what you assume is someone's lived experience or emotion. You know the artist had a flash of inspiration, then worked hard to bring the work to life. That connection might feel hollow if you discover it was generated by a bot trained on a dataset of existing songs. Would that affect your ability to enjoy it? Let us know if you actually like AI music in the poll above, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Twisted secret behind Spotify's biggest new band... as fans and artists boycott the music service
Spotify is facing boycotts from both artists and subscribers over its move into AI. Not only is the streaming service facing backlash for its ties to an AI military startup, one of the biggest new bands on the site is rumored to be AI generated. The band, named The Velvet Sundown, already have over 550,000 million monthly listeners despite only debuting on the service in early June. Promotional images of the band all appear to be AI generated, and the credits on their music has no writers, producers or musicians listed. There's also no live performances or interviews of the band anywhere to be found, and none of the four members have any kind of internet presence. The band also has barely any social media followers, with just 322 on Instagram and 47 followers on X. Despite this, The Velvet Sundown have been featured on multiple popular Spotify playlists. After various media outlets reported that The Velvet Sundown may be AI-generated, the band hit back in a series of posts on X - yet offered no proof to disprove the claims. 'Absolutely crazy that so-called 'journalists' keep pushing the lazy, baseless theory that The Velvet Sundown is 'AI-generated' with zero evidence,' they wrote. 'Not a single one of these "writers" has reached out, visited a show, or listened beyond the Spotify algorithm,' they continued. 'This is not a joke. This is our music, written in long, sweaty nights in a cramped bungalow in California with real instruments, real minds, and real soul. Every chord, every lyric, every mistake — HUMAN.' They added, 'Just because we don't do TikTok dances or livestream our process doesn't mean we're fake.' And despite their miniscule following on social media, the band said that they had to 'lock down' all of their accounts 'due to harassment'. However, none of their accounts are officially verified by any site outside of Spotify, and none of their social media accounts have been set to private either. On Deezer, where The Velvet Sundown's music also appears, there's a warning from the streamer stating, 'some tracks on this album may have been created using artificial intelligence'. has contacted The Velvet Sundown for comment. Back in 2017, Spotify was forced to deny reports that they had created 'fake' artists to fill up their playlists, presumably in a bid to reduce royalty payments. 'We do not and have never created 'fake' artists and put them on Spotify playlists. Categorically untrue, full stop,' they said at the time. 'We do not own rights, we're not a label, all our music is licensed from rights holders and we pay them - we don't pay ourselves.' Meanwhile, allegations of AI artists isn't the only issue that Spotify is dealing with right now. The streaming service is currently facing boycotts from a handful of fans and artists after a venture capital firm founded by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek contributed 600 million euros ($693.6 million) to German military tech startup Helsing. According to the Financial Times, the company is producing drones, aircraft and submarines, and developing a system to create AI fighter pilots. Ek told the publication, 'There's an enormous realisation that it's really now AI, mass and autonomy that is driving the new battlefield'. Ek's involvement in military technology has caused a number of artists to pull their music from Spotify, including indie band Deerhoof and Amsterdam label Kalahari Oyster Cult. 'We don't want our music killing people,' Deerhoof said in a statement. 'We don't want our music tied to AI battle tech'. Others have decided to cancel their Spotify accounts. 'Cancelled my subscription and never going back. should've made the move ages ago as it's been red flags for a long time,' wrote one user.
