The Velvet Sundown: the band that fooled Spotify and turned out to be an AI creation
The Velvet Sundown had over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify before revealing the band members were actually AI
Until a few days ago, The Velvet Sundown was the new retro rock sensation on Spotify. Their nostalgic songs, with psychedelic overtones and a very '70s vibe, had won over more than a million monthly listeners in less than a month.
No one suspected that the members of this band with names like Gabe Farrow, Milo Rains, and Rio Del Mar didn't really exist. The surprise came when it was learned that behind the entire project there weren't real musicians, but an artificial intelligence trained to sound like a human band.
The stir was immediate. Some media outlets even called them "Spotify's new Pink Floyd," and thousands of users began adding their songs to playlists. But something didn't add up: there were no interviews, no real videos, the images of the supposed members were too perfect and, for many, simply weird.
It was only a matter of time before it was revealed that everything had been artificially generated: from the music and lyrics to the photos and names of the supposed artists. A completely fictional band that managed to fool the algorithm and the public.
The experiment that made the music industry uncomfortable
After it was confirmed that The Velvet Sundown was an artificial intelligence-powered project, many called it an artistic provocation, a sort of experiment to demonstrate how easy it is to "slip" synthetic content onto the major streaming platforms. The music was well-made, it sounded authentic and emotional, but it was completely artificial. There wasn't a single real instrument, nor a human voice behind those songs that went so viral.
This case sparked a heated debate: if an AI can create convincing music, What place is left for real artists? Should we be able to clearly know when a song was made by a machine? And what happens to copyright if these intelligences are trained on existing music?
Major record labels declare war on AI
The Velvet Sundown phenomenon has set off alarm bells at the top of the industry. The world's leading record labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner, have declared war on unauthorized AI-generated music. They are demanding that platforms like Spotify and Apple Music clearly label all artificially created content and that the use of copyrighted works to train models without consent be prohibited.
Furthermore, they claim that AI is eroding the value of real music, displacing human artists from the charts and generating thousands of songs that go viral simply because they are designed to please the algorithm. "We can't allow talent to be replaced by lines of code," was the phrase recently uttered by a senior Sony Music executive. Meanwhile, Spotify has not removed The Velvet Sundown's music, despite facing growing pressure from artists and music unions. Meanwhile, platforms like Deezer have already begun labeling AI-generated content and excluding these tracks from streaming revenue sharing. The Velvet Sundown went from being a mysterious band to a symbol of what artificial intelligence can do in music. Their overwhelming success wasn't a mistake: it was proof that audiences can connect emotionally even with something that isn't human. But it also highlighted that the industry is not prepared to deal with this new wave of synthetic content. Today, the case continues to generate repercussions and is expected to mark a turning point. What seemed like a simple emerging indie band ended up being the spark that ignited a cultural and legal battle in the world of streaming.
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