AI suspicion surrounding mysterious singer

Sienna Rose is having a good month.

Three of her dark, jazz-fused soul songs are in Spotify’s viral top 50. Their most popular dreamy ballad “Into The Blue” has been played over 5 million times.

If he continues on this trajectory, Rose could become one of the hottest new stars this year.

There’s only one problem. All signs point to her not being real.

Streaming service Deezer, which has developed tools to tackle AI music, told the BBC that “many of her albums and songs on its platform have been detected and flagged as computer-generated.”

If you look closely, you can see the traces of an AI artist. Rose has no social media presence, has never performed live, has no videos, and has released an incredible number of songs in a short period of time.

Between September 28th and December 5th, she uploaded at least 45 songs to streaming services. Even Prince, an artist known as a tireless creative geek, would have a hard time matching that number.

Her now-deactivated Instagram account featured a strangely homogeneous series of mugshots, all of which displayed the dim, unrealistic lighting characteristic of AI image generators.

The rest is music itself. Songs like “Into the Blue” and “Breath Again” sit right next to Norah Jones and Alicia Keys, and are packed with jazzy guitar lines and buttery-smooth vocals.

However, many listeners have focused on what they perceive as “AI artifacts.”

If you play Under The Rain or Breathe Again, you’ll hear a telltale hiss throughout the track.

This is a common characteristic of music generated by apps like Suno and Udio. This is partly because we start with white noise and gradually refine it until it starts to resemble music.

It is this quirk that allows Deezer to flag AI songs.

“At that time, [software] When you add all the layers and instruments, you get an error,” explains Gabriel Mesegel Brocal, a senior researcher at the streaming company.

“They’re imperceptible, so you can’t hear them, but you can easily find them with some mathematical operations.”

According to Meseguer-Brocal, errors act like fingerprints and have a “unique signature” that allows us to detect which software was used to create the music.

For casual listeners, there are other signs. It’s an inconsistent drum pattern, bland lyrics, and a singer who never strays from the melody or rips through the final chorus.

That “generic” sound is the biggest cue for some Sienna Rose listeners.

“That’s what I thought.”I like this’, But there was something very ‘uncanny valley’ about it,” said TikTok music critic Elosi57.

“That’s why I went to see it. [at her profile] And I thought, “This is AI.” ”

Another user wrote to X, “Started listening to Olivia Dean (amazing). Within 2 days Spotify recommended Sienna Rose, who has a similar but more conventional sound. It took me a few songs to realize she was AI.”

Broadcaster Gemma Cairney told BBC Radio 4: “Her pictures look a bit unrealistic… and when you listen to the music, you wonder if she’s just missing a piece of her soul.”

To be fair, there are plenty of other people who have fallen in love with Rose’s songs.

Among them was pop star Selena Gomez, who used Rose’s song “Where Your Warmth Begins” as the backdrop for an Instagram post about Sunday’s Golden Globes.

The song has since been removed as questions about Rose’s identity circulated online, but Gomez’s post increased interest in Rose and her identity to a new level.

And many listeners who listened to Rose’s music reacted with dismay when they learned she might not exist.

“Please tell me she’s real,” one post read in the thread.

“A few of her songs played, but I was disappointed because the music wasn’t bad,” agreed another about Bluesky. ”[But] Someone once said that it sounds soulless once you know about it, and I agree. ”

Of course, it’s quite possible that everyone misunderstands it, and Sienna Rose is a real singer who avoids the limelight. Maybe she’s in witness protection. Perhaps she is a real singer who is embroiled in a contractual dispute with her label and is releasing music under a false name.

If so, I’m sorry. It must be devastating to have your music labeled as soulless and “vulgar.” However, it is indicative of the issues currently facing the music industry as a whole.

AI software has become so sophisticated that clone artists are now competing with real musicians.

A song that topped the charts in Sweden this week was kicked off the charts after journalists discovered that the artist behind it, Jakub, no longer existed.

There are a lot of people in both technology companies and the business side of the music industry who want AI to succeed.

It costs virtually nothing to start an artist like Sienna Rose, yet her music earns her an estimated £2,000 a week in royalties.

Compare this to the K-pop industry, where labels invest an average of $1m (£750,000) per year per girl or boy group member, and you can see the appeal.

Interestingly, several of Rose’s songs are credited to New York indie record label Broke, which has a track record of turning viral artists like bbno$ and Ndotz into chart stars.

If you go to their website, Rose is not listed as one of their subscribers, but British dance act Heaven is.

If that name rings a bell, it’s because they got into trouble late last year for creating a song using an AI clone of Jorja Smith’s voice.

Their song ‘Run’ was removed from streaming services after a record industry body issued a takedown notice for copyright infringement, but it was re-recorded with human vocals and hit the UK Top 10 two weeks ago.

The BBC has contacted Broke to ask about his relationship with Sienna Rose, but has not yet received a response.

The BBC also contacted Nostalgic Records, another label that lists Rose’s name on its website.

Nostalgic Records’ biography says she is “based in London” and is “not just a performer, but a storyteller of the heart.”

According to Deezer, 34% of the songs uploaded to its streaming service (about 50,000 songs per day) are generated by AI.

“Eighteen months ago, it was around 5% or 6%,” Mesegel-Brocal said. “It’s kind of shocking that it’s increasing so quickly.”

Still, Deezer isn’t as advanced as online music store Bandcamp, which announced this week that it would ban all AI-generated music.

In a statement, Spotify defended the presence of artists like Rose on its playlists.

“It is not always possible to draw a simple line between ‘AI’ music and ‘non-AI’ music,” the spokesperson said. “Spotify does not create or own the music and does not promote or penalize tracks created using AI tools.”

On the other hand, there is also a growing backlash against AI music.

Last year, artists including Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Damon Albarn, Pet Shop Boys and Annie Lennox released a “silent album” protesting companies that used copyrighted works to train AI models without permission.

Speaking at the 2024 Ivor Novello Awards, pop star Ray said he believes fans will always choose real music over algorithmically generated filler.

“There’s no reason to feel threatened,” she says. “I don’t write because I’m trying to be the best writer, I write because I’m trying to tell my story.

“You’re trying to unload a burden you’ve been carrying, or you’re trying to express yourself and feel better.”

At the same event, Kojei Radical said he wasn’t worried about AI, even though he can’t even trust the washing machine to start at the right time.

“Why is everyone trying to make me afraid of robots?” he laughed.

“Robots are not scary. We will definitely win.”