The “indie rock band” called The Velvet Sundown sells music with AI-generated photos of members' members who appear to be nonexistent, but they claim that “we don't use AI.”
After being publicly accused of being made of AI, the band's “official” X account appears to be trying to control the story.
“The so-called 'journalists' are absolutely crazy that velvet sunsets continue to push the lazy, unfounded theory that it is “generated” with zero evidence,” he wrote in a tweet on Sunday. “One of these 'writers' has not reached out to them, visited shows, or listened beyond the Spotify algorithm. ”
Anything is possible, but it's a difficult denial to believe. All “photos” of the band were clearly generated by AI, and the bio referenced previously non-existent articles Billboard. If all such things are fake, why should we believe that the band's music, or its protests, is real?
The incident underscores the turbulent effects that generator AI has had on the music industry. This is a hotly discussed topic, with many mainstream artists expressing support for AI regulations in light of the tide waves of AI slop flood streaming platforms.
Velvet Sundown, which currently has over 550,000 listings per month, monitored it on social media when users raised the red flag about the band's authenticity.
“As a music maker, it breaks my heart,” writes Reddit users. “As a music lover and a Spotify user, I think it's offensive to me that I don't mention anywhere that it's a band that was produced.”
“Please report this shit…” they added. “What else can I do?”
Spotify's competitor Deezer flagged the band's latest album, “Dust and Silence,” saying it was “Ai Generated Content,” and said “several tracks on this album could have been created using artificial intelligence.”
Our own research found no evidence that the “member” actually existed. The band's Instagram page is clearly full of AI-generated images, suggesting that the latest claim that “no AI” is misleading at best.
As Stereo Gum Spotify's band bio also shows a lot of evidence that it was produced by AI. They also develop highly suspicious sentence structures that suggest the possibility of using AI text generators such as ChatGpt.
“Velvet Sunset doesn't try to revive the past,” the blurb reads. It uses AI's trademark denial structure. “They're rewriting it. They sound like memories of times that didn't actually happen… But somehow they make it feel real.”
The Velvet Sundown – The name that looks like the lazy Porte Manteau of the legendary psychrock band The Velvet Underground and Montreal Indie Outfit Sunset Rubdown has been put into damage control mode in light of a flood of criticism.
“This is no joke,” the band's obvious X account wrote. “This is our music, written on a long sweaty night in a California cramped bungalow with real instruments, real hearts and real souls.”
“Every chord, every lyrics, every mistake, human,” the tweet reads.
“Just because we don't do Tiktok Dances or LiveStream doesn't mean that our process means we're fakes,” the account wrote in a follow-up. “The fact that some blog editors want to pretend we're a lot of machines rather than admit that unknown bands are shattering here makes something that people enjoy.”
But without real evidence that the band is “real” – a quick video of the band in a rehearsal in the studio would be enough – it's difficult to know what to do with that claim. As PC Gamer Velvet sunsets could be betting the algorithms of music streaming platforms by closely mimicking popular artists in search of sight.
AI-based music generation tools are also very sophisticated, allowing virtually anyone to create compelling soundtracks on the fly.
In December, Beatles legend Paul McCartney warned that AI “can just take over, and that it doesn't want it to happen, especially for younger composers and writers. [for] Who might it be their only way[‘re] I'm planning on creating a career. ”
It also brings some AI-generated Diss Tracks to viral, leading to mainstream record labels representing artists like Aubrey “Drake” Graham, forcing music streaming services to remove problematic songs from the platform.
It is still unknown if Velvet Sundown's music is the output of the generator AI. However, given the incredibly bland lyrics and the completely contradictory audio performance from track to track, it certainly seems likely.
In short, even if the music was recorded by a real human artist, the blatantly generated images on social media pages strongly suggest that they are lying about not using AI if the band exists.
Futurism I reached out to X's band, but haven't received a reply yet.
Band details: “Indie Rock Bands” that appear to be fully AI-generated, making amazing sums on Spotify
