Is ‘Velvet Sundown’ AI Hoax a Canary in the Mine for Music?

Conversations around so-called ‘industry plants’ have swirled through the music industry for decades now. 

In the past few years, it’s been the likes of Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey that have borne the brunt of criticism from cynical music fans, with a vocal minority suggesting that the success of these artists is down to a surreptitious connection they have to the music business.

Never before, though, has a band been totally fabricated using AI — until now.

In June, a folk rock band named The Velvet Sundown first appeared on streaming services and social media, with a carefully curated image and sound. Within weeks the band had accrued millions of listens on Spotify.

Quickly, though, people began to notice something was amiss with the whole project. The band’s press photos, for a start, appeared to be generated by AI, displaying that slight uncanniness so characteristic of Gen AI imagery.

Further cracks in the facade emerged when an individual claiming to be an "adjunct" member revealed that the band had used Suno, a Gen AI platform, to create their music.

The band's social media presence initially denied these claims, but with pressure mounting the team behind the project confessed that the band was indeed nothing more than AI.

The whole endeavour has been roundly denounced by stakeholders within the music industry, with fingers being pointed at streaming services like Spotify for failing to identify the music as fabricated.

This episode follows on from a series of AI-related controversies that music streaming platforms have been at the centre of in recent memory. The Velvet Sundown saga in particular, though, has started to feel like a canary-in-the-mine moment for the industry, with stakeholders demanding immediate change.

"This is exactly what artists have been worried about, it's theft dressed up as competition," says Ed Newton Rex, Founder of AI ethics non-profit Fairly Trained.

"AI companies steal artists' work to build their products, then flood the market with knock-offs, meaning less money goes to human musicians."

Backlash from the music industry

The Velvet Sundown phenomenon has exposed a glaring gap in the current regulations on AI-generated content in the music industry.

"AI-generated bands like Velvet Sundown that are reaching big audiences without involving human creators raise serious concerns around transparency, authorship and consent," says Roberto Neri, CEO of the Ivors Academy.

"We believe that AI should be used to serve human creativity, not supplant it," explains Sophie Jones, Chief Strategy Officer at the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

The BPI's calls for more transparency from AI companies reflect growing industry consensus that the current laissez-faire approach will not be sustainable for musicians trying to make a living.

In her bestselling book 'Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist', writer Liz Pelly talks about just how vulnerable AI is making musicians today, with models being widely trained using music without either consent or compensation.

She is also a vocal critic of the homogenising effect that AI-generated music will bring in tow — a particularly pertinent subject in the case of The Velvet Sundown.

"Musical trends produced in the streaming era are inherently connected to attention, whether it's hard-and-fast attention-grabbing hooks, pop drops and chorus loops engineered for the pleasure centres of our brains, or music that strategically requires no attention at all - the background music, the emotional wallpaper, the chill-pop-sad-vibe-playlist fodder," Liz explains.

"We believe that AI should be used to serve human creativity, not supplant it," explains Sophie Jones, Chief Strategy Officer at the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

The BPI's calls for more transparency from AI companies reflect growing industry consensus that the current hands-off approach will not be sustainable for musicians trying to make a living.

In her bestselling book 'Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist', writer Liz Pelly talks about just how vulnerable AI is making musicians today, with models being widely trained using music without either consent or compensation.

She is also a vocal critic of the homogenising effect that AI-generated music will bring in tow — a particularly pertinent subject in the case of The Velvet Sundown.

"Musical trends produced in the streaming era are inherently connected to attention, whether it's hard-and-fast attention-grabbing hooks, pop drops and chorus loops engineered for the pleasure centres of our brains, or music that strategically requires no attention at all - the background music, the emotional wallpaper, the chill-pop-sad-vibe-playlist fodder," Liz explains.

The response of streaming services

The streaming industry's response to The Velvet Sundown and AI-generated content more generally has been rather fragmented so far.

Deezer has taken a proactive approach, implementing detection software that identifies and tags AI-generated tracks.

"For the moment, I think platforms need to be transparent and try to inform users," says the French streaming service's Chief Innovation Officer, Aurélien Hérault.

Aurélien's concept of a "naturalisation of AI" period suggests that current tagging requirements may only be useful as temporary measures, while the technology becomes more integrated into mainstream music production.

Spotify, meanwhile, has maintained its position that it does not prioritise AI-generated music, with a spokesperson noting that "all music on Spotify, including AI-generated music, is created, owned and uploaded by licensed third parties".

However, Spotify is developing something of a track record when it comes to AI controversies.

In Mood Machine, Liz details how the Swedish tech giant purposely populates its playlists — particularly those containing instrumental music — with AI-generated songs so that it doesn't have to pay artists royalties for each listen.

With Spotify being the platform on which The Velvet Sundown has found its greatest success so far, many observers are speculating that the company has had a hand in promoting this music in the same way.

The details remain unclear, but, for now at least, The Velvet Sundown serves as both a cautionary tale and a potential catalyst for comprehensive regulatory reform in the music industry.