## News Summary: The Silent Infiltration of AI-Generated Music **News Title:** “There’s not a shred of evidence on the internet that this band has ever existed”: This apparently AI-generated artist is racking up hundreds of thousands of Spotify streams **Type:** News/Report **Report Provider/Author:** MusicRadar / Matt Mullen **Date/Time Period Covered:** Published June 27, 2025. The article discusses AI music generators active for "almost two years now" and events from 2023. **Topic/Sub-topic:** Technology / AI --- ### **Overview & Main Findings** While initial fears that AI-powered music generators like Suno and Udio would quickly dominate mainstream charts haven't fully materialized, a new, more subtle and concerning trend is emerging. AI-generated songs are "slowly but surely creeping into our headphones," often without listeners realizing it. These "disturbingly realistic" tracks are being "smuggled into popular playlists" and hidden among authentic music, allowing AI-generated artists to gain significant traction and streams, thereby diverting revenue from human artists. ### **Key Observations & Case Study: The Velvet Sundown** The article highlights the case of **The Velvet Sundown**, an apparent AI-generated band that exemplifies this silent infiltration: * **Significant Listenership:** The band boasts **almost 350,000 monthly Spotify listeners**. * **Lack of Online Presence:** Despite their popularity, there is "not a shred of evidence on the internet that this band has ever existed," with no discernible social media accounts or online footprint. * **Artificial Persona:** * Their artist image and biography are highly suspicious. The Spotify profile, stating "The Velvet Sundown don’t just play music — they conjure worlds" and describing their sound as "fusing 1970s psychedelic textures with cinematic alt-pop and dreamy analog soul," is estimated to be **99% certain** to have been authored by ChatGPT. * The biography includes tell-tale phrases like their music "feels like a hallucination you want to stay lost in" and a seemingly bogus quote from Billboard. * The purported band members—"mellotron sorcerer" Gabe Farrow, "free-spirited percussionist" Orion “Rio” Del Mar, "synth alchemist" Milo Rains, and guitarist Lennie West—yield a **grand total of zero appearances** in Google search results. * **Music Quality & Distribution:** * The band's country-tinged roots-rock music bears the "unmistakably lo-fi veneer of a Suno creation" but is "convincing enough to pass by undetected" when placed between authentic songs. * Velvet Sundown tracks have been found in **more than 30 popular playlists** created by anonymous curators, which have been saved by **more than half a million listeners**. * Their music has also begun appearing in Spotify users' personalized "Discover Weekly" playlists, indicating integration into recommendation algorithms. * The music has been uploaded to other platforms like Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube. Notably, Deezer's AI detection tool has flagged The Velvet Sundown's music as potentially AI-generated. ### **Broader Trends & Concerns** * While a few AI-made tracks have broken through to the mainstream (e.g., a "fake Drake" song in 2023 that picked up **millions of streams** before being taken down, and a recent AI track in Germany's charts), the top tier of the music industry remains largely untouched by direct AI chart domination. * However, the success of artists like The Velvet Sundown confirms that of the **thousands of AI-generated tracks uploaded to streaming services each day**, many are gaining a foothold. * The primary concern is that this subtle infiltration allows AI-generated music to "take money out of the pockets of authentic artists making real music" by capturing streams and royalties without genuine human artistry or fan engagement. * The identity of those behind The Velvet Sundown and the mechanism for their playlist infiltration remain a mystery, highlighting the opaque nature of this emerging challenge.
“There’s not a shred of evidence on the internet that this band has ever existed”: This apparently AI-generated artist is racking up hundreds of thousands of Spotify streams
Read original at MusicRadar →There's nothing behind the eyes(Image credit: Velvet Sundown)AI-powered music generators Suno and Udio have been churning out soulless slop for almost two years now, but it seems that AI-generated songs have largely failed to capture the public's imagination in the way that many of the technology's critics had feared.
A handful of AI-made tracks have broken through to the mainstream: in 2023, a controversial 'fake Drake' song with deepfake vocals picked up millions of streams before being taken down, and more recently, an unsavoury AI-generated track made it into Germany's charts, stirring up tensions for an entirely different reason.
But, on the whole, the top tier of the music industry has yet to be infiltrated by tracks produced by platforms like Suno, which generate complete songs based on text prompts at the click of a button. That's not to say that AI-generated music isn't being listened to, however, as a report from Music Ally has made clear.
Though they're not yet dominating the charts, disturbingly realistic AI songs are slowly but surely creeping into our headphones - and you may even be listening to them without realizing what you're hearing. Smuggled into popular playlists and hidden in plain sight among authentic, well-known tracks, AI-generated artists with fake photos, ChatGPT-generated biographies and no genuine fans to speak of are picking up hundreds of thousands of streams.
One such artist is The Velvet Sundown, a band with almost 350,000 monthly Spotify listeners but no discernible online presence or social media accounts. ("There's not a shred of evidence on the internet that this band has ever existed," as one Redditor put it.) While we can't confirm that the band's music is AI-generated, a glance at their artist image and bio should be enough to persuade even the least skeptical observer."
The Velvet Sundown don’t just play music — they conjure worlds," reads the group's Spotify profile, which we're about 99% certain has been authored by ChatGPT. "Somewhere between the ghost of Laurel Canyon and the echo of a Berlin warehouse, this four-piece band bends time, fusing 1970s psychedelic textures with cinematic alt-pop and dreamy analog soul."
The biography tellingly states that the band's music "feels like a hallucination you want to stay lost in," their live shows playing like "lucid dreams" and their albums "unfolding like lost soundtracks to films that were never made". There's even a seemingly bogus quote from Billboard rounding things off, claiming that the band "sound like the memory of something you never lived, and somehow make it feel real”.
Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. The band's line-up ostensibly features "mellotron sorcerer" Gabe Farrow, "free-spirited percussionist" Orion “Rio” Del Mar, "synth alchemist" Milo Rains and guitarist Lennie West, four musicians that turn up a grand total of zero appearances in Google search results between them.
As for the music itself, the band's country-tinged roots-rock bears the unmistakably lo-fi veneer of a Suno creation, but is convincing enough to pass by undetected if sandwiched in a playlist between two authentic songs. In fact, that's exactly where it's been found.Velvet Sundown tracks have been identified in more than 30 popular playlists created by anonymous curator accounts, and have even begun popping up in Spotify users' Discover Weekly, personalized playlists generated by the platform's recommendation algorithm.
The band's music has also been uploaded to Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube and Deezer, the latter's AI detection tool flagging The Velvet Sundown's music as potentially AI-generated.Who is behind The Velvet Sundown, and how has the music made its way into playlists themed around TV soundtracks and Vietnam War-era artists, saved by more than half a million listeners?
The answer to both of these questions remains a mystery, but the band's growing popularity confirms that of the thousands of AI-generated tracks uploaded to streaming services each day, many are gaining a foothold - and with it, taking money out of the pockets of authentic artists making real music.
Read more: "TaTa is a living, learning, autonomous music artist built with AI. She’s the first artist of a new generation”: Timbaland just created an entirely artificial artist and its debut single is out soonI'm MusicRadar's Tech Editor, working across everything from product news and gear-focused features to artist interviews and tech tutorials.
I love electronic music and I'm perpetually fascinated by the tools we use to make it.
