In a curious incident that has captured public attention and raised numerous questions surrounding the interplay of music and technology, a band named The Velvet Sundown has gained significant traction on the music streaming platform Spotify. The band, which has amassed over 850,000 monthly listeners, has sparked intrigue not just for its music but also for the ambiguity surrounding its existence and the authenticity of its music. Since their tracks first appeared weeks ago, they have been played hundreds of thousands of times, yet there is little understanding of who they truly are.
What adds to the mystique of The Velvet Sundown is the absence of any traditional presence typically associated with musical artists. None of the four musicians listed in the band have participated in interviews or maintained individual social media accounts, and there are no records that relate to any live performances. This has led to rampant speculation and accusations that their entire musical catalog might be the product of artificial intelligence (AI), a notion that the band has publicly denied via their social media channels. Remarkably, despite the queries posed by various media outlets, including the BBC, The Velvet Sundown has not engaged with these inquiries directly.
The story deepened when Rolling Stone US reported that a purported spokesman for the band claimed that their music was indeed generated using an AI tool named Suno. However, this spokesperson, identified as Andrew Frelon, later turned out to be a fabricated persona, allegedly for the purpose of perpetrating a media hoax. Following this revelation, The Velvet Sundown issued a statement on their Spotify page disassociating themselves from Frelon, emphasizing that they had no ties to him and expressing skepticism over the validity of his existence.
The implications of this incident extend beyond merely one band’s unconventional rise to fame. It touches on larger societal concerns regarding authenticity, truth, and the potential dilution of creative industries due to the proliferation of AI technologies. Professor Gina Neff, an expert from the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, elaborated on this, asserting that the situation with The Velvet Sundown reflects a troubling trend where reality seems ever more tenuous. She highlighted that while the question of whether the band is AI-generated may seem trivial, it plays into broader anxieties about losing control over AI and the importance of safeguarding accurate online information.
The Velvet Sundown’s music, described as indie ballads featuring guitar compositions and male vocals, could easily be mistaken as either human-generated or machine-created by casual listeners. Lyric samples like “eyes like film in faded light, dreams walk barefoot into the night” encapsulate this duality, being evocative enough to be attributed to either artists or algorithms. Confirmatory tools like Deezer’s AI detection have categorically labeled the music as “100% AI-generated,” yet Spotify has not made any official comments regarding its stance on this.
In the larger context, industry figures and artists have expressed growing apprehension over how AI could affect creative markets. Protests have erupted among musicians over their works being used to train AI models without appropriate consent or compensation. Notable figures such as Sir Elton John and Dua Lipa have campaigned for clearer legal protections surrounding AI and copyright, emphasizing the urgent need for governmental attention to this evolving issue, although their legislative efforts have yet to yield substantive results.
According to Ed Newton Rex, founder of Fairly Trained, a campaign advocating for the rights of creators in the context of AI, the questions raised by the situation surrounding The Velvet Sundown underscore a pervasive fear among musicians. He articulated that many artists view such developments as a form of “theft dressed up as competition,” where their works are exploited to build AI products that flood the market, ultimately putting human musicians at a disadvantage.
In conclusion, the case of The Velvet Sundown serves not only as a riddle about musical identity but also prompts significant discussions about the future relationship between technology and art. As AI continues to evolve and penetrate various sectors, the creative industries will likely have to grapple with questions of authenticity, originality, and the inherent value of human expression amid a rapidly changing technological landscape.
