US EditionA ’60s-Flavored Band Blew up on Spotify. They Are Not Actually Real.
ONLINE PLATFORMS SUCH AS SPOTIFY AND THE BAND'S SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS, JUL 8 – The Velvet Sundown revealed its music as AI-generated after initial denial, gaining nearly 1 million monthly Spotify listeners amid a debate on AI's impact on music authorship
- The Velvet Sundown, an AI-generated indie rock band formed less than two months ago, amassed nearly one million monthly Spotify listeners by July 2025.
- The band’s emergence followed a trend of AI-created virtual bands like India’s Trilok and sparked debates on AI’s growing role in music and concerns about authenticity.
- Despite initial denials, The Velvet Sundown’s creators recently admitted AI generation, while critics called the project an “art hoax” and accused Spotify of reducing opportunities for real musicians.
- Jamie Jones stated, “putting five songs from the same AI band on a playlist… is taking food out of people’s mouths,” highlighting tensions over fair artist remuneration and AI transparency.
- The controversy illustrates the challenges AI music poses to the industry, raising questions about regulation, ethics, artist rights, and the future of creativity in streaming platforms.
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16 Articles
On Tuesday, the group's profile revealed that "The Velvet Sundown" was a "artificial provocation." Thus, all the characters, stories, voices and lyrics were created using AI tools. Previously, it had been speculated for days whether the group was real. Spotify did not comment directly on Velvet Sundown at the request of the news agency AFP. One speaker explained that the company "does not prefer music created with AI tools."
A band that doesn't exist at all: Spotify advertises with The Velvet Sundown. Generating a band on the computer lowers the costs. Computers are commonplace in the music. Why the excitement?
The Velvet Sundown, followed by 1.1 million fans on the Spotify music streaming platform, acknowledged that it was generated by artificial intelligence (AI), confirming the suspicions they had about this very young rock band, which...
In order not to have to pay royalties to real musicians, AI-generated music on streaming platforms now accounts for 20 percent of the market share
The Velvet Sundown is a purely virtual band. Their pictures and songs were created with common AI programs. What does that mean for the future of pop? And what can computer-generated lyrics transport?
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