Latest news with #arthoax
The Guardian
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
An AI-generated band got 1m plays on Spotify. Now music insiders say listeners should be warned
They went viral, amassing more than 1m streams on Spotify in a matter of weeks, but it later emerged that hot new band the Velvet Sundown were AI-generated – right down to their music, promotional images and backstory. The episode has triggered a debate about authenticity, with music industry insiders saying streaming sites should be legally obliged to tag music created by AI-generated acts so consumers can make informed decisions about what they are listening to. Initially, the 'band', described as 'a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction', denied they were an AI creation, and released two albums in June called Floating On Echoes and Dust And Silence, which were similar to the country folk of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Things became more complicated when someone describing himself as an 'adjunct' member told reporters that the Velvet Sundown had used the generative AI platform Suno in the creation of their songs, and that the project was an 'art hoax'. The band's official social media channels denied this and said the group's identity was being 'hijacked', before releasing a statement confirming that the group was an AI creation and was 'Not quite human. Not quite machine' but living 'somewhere in between'. Several figures told the Guardian that the present situation, where streaming sites, including Spotify, are under no legal obligation to identify AI-generated music, left consumers unaware of the origins of the songs they're listening to. Roberto Neri, the chief executive of the Ivors Academy, said: 'AI-generated bands like Velvet Sundown that are reaching big audiences without involving human creators raise serious concerns around transparency, authorship and consent.' Neri added that if 'used ethically', AI has the potential to enhance songwriting, but said at present his organisation was concerned with what he called 'deeply troubling issues' with the use of AI in music. Sophie Jones, the chief strategy officer at the music trade body the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), backed calls for clear labelling. 'We believe that AI should be used to serve human creativity, not supplant it,' said Jones. 'That's why we're calling on the UK government to protect copyright and introduce new transparency obligations for AI companies so that music rights can be licensed and enforced, as well as calling for the clear labelling of content solely generated by AI.' Liz Pelly, the author of Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, said independent artists could be exploited by people behind AI bands who might create tracks that are trained using their music. She referred to the 2023 case of a song that was uploaded to TikTok, Spotify and YouTube, which used AI-generated vocals claiming to be the Weeknd and Drake. Universal Music Group said the song was 'infringing content created with generative AI' and it was removed shortly after it was uploaded. It is not clear what music the Velvet Sundown's albums were trained on, with critics saying that lack of clarity means independent artists could be losing out on compensation. Pelly said: 'We need to make sure that it's not just pop stars whose interests are being looked after, all artists should have the ability to know if their work has been exploited in this way.' For some, the appearance of the Velvet Sundown is the logical next step as music and AI combine, while legislation is fighting to keep up with a rapidly changing musical ecosystem. Sign up to Sleeve Notes Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras. Every genre, every era, every week after newsletter promotion Jones said: 'The rise of AI-generated bands and music entering the market points to the fact that tech companies have been training AI models using creative works – largely without authorisation or payment to creators and rights-holders – in order to directly compete with human artistry.' Neri added that the UK has a chance to lead the world in ethical AI adoption in music but said there needed to be robust legal frameworks that 'guarantee consent and fair remuneration for creators, and clear labelling for listeners'. 'Without such safeguards, AI risks repeating the same mistakes seen in streaming, where big tech profits while music creators are left behind,' he added. Aurélien Hérault, the chief innovation officer at the music streaming service Deezer, said the company uses detection software that identifies AI-generated tracks and tags them. He said: 'For the moment, I think platforms need to be transparent and try to inform users. For a period of time, what I call the 'naturalisation of AI', we need to inform users when it's used or not.' Hérault did not rule out removing tagging in future if AI-generated music becomes more popular and musicians begin to use it like an 'instrument'. Deezer recently told the Guardian that up to seven out of 10 streams of AI-generated music on the platform are fraudulent. At present, Spotify does not label music as AI-generated and has previously been criticised for populating some playlists with music by 'ghost artists' – fake acts that create stock music. A spokesperson for the company said Spotify does not prioritise AI-generated music. 'All music on Spotify, including AI-generated music, is created, owned and uploaded by licensed third parties,' they said.
The Guardian
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
An AI-generated band got 1m plays on Spotify. Now music insiders say listeners should be warned
They went viral, amassing more than 1m streams on Spotify in a matter of weeks, but it later emerged that hot new band the Velvet Sundown were AI-generated – right down to their music, promotional images and backstory. The episode has triggered a debate about authenticity, with music industry insiders saying streaming sites should be legally obliged to tag music created by AI-generated acts so consumers can make informed decisions about what they are listening to. Initially, the 'band', described as 'a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction', denied they were an AI creation, and released two albums in June called Floating On Echoes and Dust And Silence, which were similar to the country folk of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Things became more complicated when someone describing himself as an 'adjunct' member told reporters that the Velvet Sundown had used the generative AI platform Suno in the creation of their songs, and that the project was an 'art hoax'. The band's official social media channels denied this and said the group's identity was being 'hijacked', before releasing a statement confirming that the group was an AI creation and was 'Not quite human. Not quite machine' but living 'somewhere in between'. Several figures told the Guardian that the present situation, where streaming sites, including Spotify, are under no legal obligation to identify AI-generated music, left consumers unaware of the origins of the songs they're listening to. Roberto Neri, the chief executive of the Ivors Academy, said: 'AI-generated bands like Velvet Sundown that are reaching big audiences without involving human creators raise serious concerns around transparency, authorship and consent.' Neri added that if 'used ethically', AI has the potential to enhance songwriting, but said at present his organisation was concerned with what he called 'deeply troubling issues' with the use of AI in music. Sophie Jones, the chief strategy officer at the music trade body the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), backed calls for clear labelling. 'We believe that AI should be used to serve human creativity, not supplant it,' said Jones. 'That's why we're calling on the UK government to protect copyright and introduce new transparency obligations for AI companies so that music rights can be licensed and enforced, as well as calling for the clear labelling of content solely generated by AI.' Liz Pelly, the author of Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, said independent artists could be exploited by people behind AI bands who might create tracks that are trained using their music. She referred to the 2023 case of a song that was uploaded to TikTok, Spotify and YouTube, which used AI-generated vocals claiming to be the Weeknd and Drake. Universal Music Group said the song was 'infringing content created with generative AI' and it was removed shortly after it was uploaded. It is not clear what music the Velvet Sundown's albums were trained on, with critics saying that lack of clarity means independent artists could be losing out on compensation. Pelly said: 'We need to make sure that it's not just pop stars whose interests are being looked after, all artists should have the ability to know if their work has been exploited in this way.' For some, the appearance of the Velvet Sundown is the logical next step as music and AI combine, while legislation is fighting to keep up with a rapidly changing musical ecosystem. Sign up to Sleeve Notes Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras. Every genre, every era, every week after newsletter promotion Jones said: 'The rise of AI-generated bands and music entering the market points to the fact that tech companies have been training AI models using creative works – largely without authorisation or payment to creators and rights-holders – in order to directly compete with human artistry.' Neri added that the UK has a chance to lead the world in ethical AI adoption in music but said there needed to be robust legal frameworks that 'guarantee consent and fair remuneration for creators, and clear labelling for listeners'. 'Without such safeguards, AI risks repeating the same mistakes seen in streaming, where big tech profits while music creators are left behind,' he added. Aurélien Hérault, the chief innovation officer at the music streaming service Deezer, said the company uses detection software that identifies AI-generated tracks and tags them. He said: 'For the moment, I think platforms need to be transparent and try to inform users. For a period of time, what I call the 'naturalisation of AI', we need to inform users when it's used or not.' Hérault did not rule out removing tagging in future if AI-generated music becomes more popular and musicians begin to use it like an 'instrument'. Deezer recently told the Guardian that up to seven out of 10 streams of AI-generated music on the platform are fraudulent. At present, Spotify does not label music as AI-generated and has previously been criticised for populating some playlists with music by 'ghost artists' – fake acts that create stock music. A spokesperson for the company said Spotify does not prioritise AI-generated music. 'All music on Spotify, including AI-generated music, is created, owned and uploaded by licensed third parties,' they said.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- 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
