'We're AI', popular indie rock band Velvet Sundown admit
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Velvet Sundown have more than a million monthly listeners on Spotify.
PHOTO: THEVELVETSUNDOWNBAND/INSTAGRAM
Follow topic:
PARIS – An indie rock band with more than a million monthly listeners on Spotify have owned up to being an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated music project, following days of speculation about whether the group were real.
Named Velvet Sundown – seemingly a nod to late American musician Lou Reed’s band The Velvet Underground – the digital group have become a viral hit, generating ferocious online discussion after racking up hundreds of thousands of listens.
An updated Spotify profile, consulted by AFP on July 8, admitted that the group were an “ongoing artistic provocation”.
“All characters, stories, music, voices and lyrics are original creations generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools employed as creative instruments,” Velvet Sundown’s profile added.
Recently created social media profiles, featuring photos of the group that look suspiciously fake, have teased readers about the group’s origins, offering often contradictory information.
Experts have long warned about the dangers of AI image, video and music generators blurring the lines between the real and fake.
A major study in December 2024 by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, which represents more than five million creators worldwide, warned about the danger of AI-generated music.
It forecast that artistes could see their incomes shrink by more than 20 per cent in the next four years as the market for AI-composed music grows.
Stockholm-based streamer Spotify declined to comment directly about Velvet Sundown when contacted by AFP.
Spokeswoman Geraldine Igou wrote that the platform does not “prioritise or benefit financially from music created using AI tools”.
“All tracks are created, owned and uploaded by licensed third parties,” she said.
Rival music streaming service Deezer displayed a warning for “AI-generated content” for Velvet Sundown.
“Some tracks on this album may have been created using artificial intelligence,” it said.
The Spotify rival has an AI-music detection tool that is able to identify songs generated using popular software models such as Suno and Udio.
Deezer said in April that it was receiving more than 20,000 fully AI-generated tracks on a daily basis, comprising 18 per cent of all uploaded content, an increase from the previously reported 10 per cent in January.
Reports on July 8 said an imposter posing as United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been using AI-generated voice and text messages to high-level officials and foreign ministers. AFP
