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Metro
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Mystery over rock band 'that doesn't exist' with over 600,000 streams
A mysterious new band is climbing the charts on Spotify, racking up over half a million listens in just a few days. The Velvet Sundown sound familiar, and their songs are perfectly listenable, if not the next Sweet Jane. But they're causing controversy because people think they're entirely AI-generated, and you can see why. They either don't exist at all, or they're pretending to be AI for a marketing gimmick. According to their 'verified artist' Spotify profile, the band was 'formed by singer and mellotron player Gabe Farrow, guitarist Lennie West, Milo Rains, who crafts the band's textured synth sounds, and free-spirited percussionist Orion 'Rio' Del Mar'. Only problem is, none of them have any social media presence or evidence of existing outside of this bio, and the band itself only started posting on X and Instragram three days ago. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Not quite what you'd expect if they'd been gigging and promoting themselves for years before their big break. Their official Instagram account references the controversy with a video captioned: 'They said we're not real. Maybe you aren't either.' Equally enigmatically, their bio reads: 'A band you might have heard once in a dream. This one has only just begun.' But their online presence is even odder than this, as there are several different accounts claiming to be them on both X and Instagram, one of which has been very outspoken insisting they are not AI. They wrote: 'This is not a joke. This is our music, written in long, sweaty nights in a cramped bungalow in California with real instruments, real minds, and real soul. Every chord, every lyric, every mistake — HUMAN.' But the plot thickens, as a different Velvet Sundown account on X (the one linked to in the band's Spotify profile) indicated the first account wasn't even them at all. They wrote: 'To all the journalists who wrote about us — Thank you for listening. However, these are the only official pages of the band. All others are reflections, echoes, projections. Don't amplify what isn't us.' The possibly fake X account has more followers than the official X account, and also started posting first, so you can see why people are getting confused about all of this. 🚨 Absolutely crazy that so-called 'journalists' keep pushing the lazy, baseless theory that The Velvet Sundown is 'AI-generated' with zero evidence. Not a single one of these "writers" has reached out, visited a show, or listened beyond the Spotify algorithm. 1/ — The Velvet Sundown (Band) – Official 🎸🎶🎧 (@Velvet_Sundown) June 29, 2025 We asked to speak to the people behind the (fake?) X account and they agreed to talk, but did not yet reply when we asked if it could be a video call. The band also has at least five Instagram accounts, one of which is filled with what looks like AI generated images. These images are part of the reason the band has been accused of being fake, with oddities in the images like fudged fingers or a guitar with disappearing strings. But again, the band now say this is not their official account, which has only one promo video on the grid. Deezer, a rival music streaming service, has tagged the Velvet Sundown's music as being AI generated. This had nothing to do with the images or promotion surrounding them, but was down to analysis of the music itself. Aurelien Herault, Chief Innovation Officer at Deezer, told Metro: We have trained our detection tool using datasets from a number of generative models, including Suno and Udio, which means that our detection tool is able to recognise the signals and sounds in fully AI-generated music that you don't find in authentic tracks. 'We have also made significant progress in training our detection tool to identify AI tracks even without a specific dataset to train on. 'Thanks to our tool, we are confident that the album pages that are currently tagged generated by AI on our platform are generated by AI.' Their software flagged The Velvet Sundown as being AI before the contoversy erupted, and so a label is now shown to users warning 'AI generated content. Some tracks on this album may have been created using artificial intelligence.' It's growing, and Deezer say they now see 20,000 tracks which are 100% AI generated submitted every single day, which has doubled from the start of the year. Mr Herault told Metro that artifically generated music now makes up approximately 18% of all tracks delivered to the platform. He said: 'At Deezer we want to prioritise revenues going to real artists, which is why we remove fully AI-generated tracks from algorithmic or editorial recommendations. 'We don't believe AI music is inherently good or bad, but we believe music fans have a right to know what they are listening to, which is why we opt for a transparent approach and tag AI-generated music on Deezer, in order to build trust with our users.' As the tech continues to improve, we will no doubt get tracks which sound great and are made by AI, at the same time as becomes more integrated in filmmaking and yes, maybe takes your white collar job. Spotify has been investing heavily in AI, and you can now use it to make you playlists or listen to a DJ curating songs for you. But it has also been accused of adding AI generated music to popular playlists like Ambient Chill and Peaceful Piano, without it being obvious to users. The company has not commented on this, but previously said it was 'categorically untrue' that it was creating AI music itself to fill playlists. Instagram has introduced a tag to show if something is made using AI, and videos made by Google Veo are watermarked. However, the industry standard is less clear when it comes to AI music, with Deezer currently the only streaming platform to tag it as such. One way scammers might benefit from uploading AI music to streaming platforms is by getting enough streams to earn them royalties. There are even so-called 'streaming farms' where tracks are listened to over and over again to try and game the system. So a song could be made by AI and listened to by bots on repeat, with humans barely part of the musical process at all. It would be too obvious if an unknown artist suddenly racked up millions of streams (much like with the Velvet Sundown). So to get around this, fraudsters flood streaming platforms with lots of fake songs which are each streamed just a few thousands times: enough to make money, but less likely to make people suspicious. Explaining the problem, Mr Herault said: If an artist is able to gain a significant number of users streaming their music, they then become entitled to a bigger share of the royalty pool. More Trending 'This is true whether an artist is using AI or not; the only difference being that AI music is significantly easier to produce.' He said that fraudulent streams 'are often generated by streaming farms or bots, which repeatedly 'listen' to tracks in order to inflate their streams and increase their share of the royalty pool.' Deezer said that up to 70% of streams of fully AI tracks are fraudulent, though currently AI tracks only make up 0.5% of overall streams. The company said: 'When detecting stream manipulation of any kind, Deezer excludes the streams from the royalty payments.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Legendary 70s rock band tease reunion tour after retiring over frontman's serious injury MORE: Rock star shares hospital bed update after 'very aggressive' cancer diagnosis MORE: I worked at Wimbledon for 40 years — now a machine has taken my job
San Francisco Chronicle
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Velvet Sundown, a suspected AI band, tops 550,000 listeners on Spotify in under a month
In a little less than a month, a band calling itself the Velvet Sundown has amassed more than 550,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. With two albums — 'Floating On Echoes' and 'Dust and Silence' — released in rapid succession in June, the group's sudden rise has been as mystifying as their digital footprint is sparse. The group's bio is drenched in dreamlike metaphor, introducing its members as 'vocalist and mellotron sorcerer Gabe Farrow,' guitarist Lennie West, bassist-synth alchemist Milo Rains and percussionist Orion 'Rio' Del Mar. But no trace of these supposed musicians exists online, not even a modest trail of interviews, performances or social media activity. That is, until an Instagram account surfaced on Friday, June 27, bearing images critics have called 'eerily AI-generated.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Velvet Sundown (@thevelvetsundownband) Skeptics have raised red flags across Reddit and music journalism circles. On Spotify, all songwriting and production credits go solely to the band, a rare practice in today's collaborative industry. There is no producer. There are no tour dates. There is no record label. Even a quote in their bio — 'they sound like the memory of something you never lived, and somehow make it feel real' — allegedly from Billboard is nowhere to be found in the publication's archives. 'The Velvet Sundown aren't trying to revive the past,' the band's 'verified artist' profile reads on Spotify. 'They're rewriting it. They sound like the memory of a time that never actually happened.' Photos of the band are bathed in amber light and have an almost airbrushed, artificial quality. But what stands out even more is the vacant, lifeless expression on each musician's face. One long-haired member holding an acoustic guitar — resembling a blend of singer Noah Kahan and 'Queer Eye' star Jonathan Van Ness — is especially uncanny: too flawless, too serene, more like a stock photo than a real person. Meanwhile, Deezer, a music streaming service that flags content it suspects is AI-generated, notes on the Velvet Sundown's profile on its site that 'some tracks on this album may have been created using artificial intelligence.' The group has reportedly been featured on more than 30 anonymous user playlists and recommended by Spotify's Discover Weekly algorithm, raising concerns about transparency and artist authenticity.
Tom's Guide
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
Spotify AI band controversy — who is The Velvet Sundown and are they real?
Looks like there's a new band in town that's taking the world by Storm. They're called "The Velvet Sundown," they're a four-piece psychedelic rock act from "a sweaty garage in California," and they sound a little bit like a mixture between Pink Floyd, Tame Impala, and King Gizzard and Lizard Wizard on their least weird day. They're also, potentially, not real. Despite having over 400,000 monthly listeners at the time of writing, there are a bunch of different hallmarks that could well point out that "The Velvet Sundown" are AI-generated. So what on earth is going on? NME dug deep into the new act to try and work out where they came from. The act seems to have come effectively out of nowhere, a seeming mystery that has cropped up on Spotify with no fanfare, no marketing, no socials, and a bunch of what look like AI-generated images. Head over to the band's X account and you'll see something similar, and something interesting. There are similarly AI-alike images of distorted guitars (not the fun kind — think twisted frets and bizarre neck lengths), fingers that merge with burgers, and otherworldly stares. Despite the images, the account looks to assure the world that they are, indeed, real people. They're apparently going to send free tickets to their next tour to their "Twitter" followers, and that "the truth is coming... stay tuned." It's all very weird, and slightly confusing. Good Question! Read their Spotify bio and you'll learn that the band consists of "singer and mellotron player Gabe Farrow," guitarist Lennie West, Milo Raines, who apparently "crafts the band's textured synth sounds," and percussionist Orion "Rio" Del Mar, who is apparently "free spirited." Ok then. People. Band members. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Do any amount of searching online, however, and you won't find any social media accounts to match the names. Apparently, it's because they've had to close their accounts due to all the AI questions they've been receiving, even though no one has reached out to them for comment. At least, so the band complains. Somehow, the band has two albums out already, even though they've not been around for very long. Both share very similar covers, both were released in June 2025, and both feature identical track counts and run times within a minute of each other. Apparently, they're a very prolific group too, given there's a new album on the way on July 11th. It's all very, very strange, and it suggests that the band might be AI-generated. While they were initially discovered on Spotify, I've found the band is also found on Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and Deezer. I've reached out to every single service to try and find out more, and so far, only Deezer has sent a response. While there's nothing about "The Velvet Sundown" as yet, the platform has put an AI-generated tag on the artist page, and tells me: 'We've detected a significant uptick in delivery of AI-generated music only in the past few months, and we see no sign of it slowing down." says Deezer CEO, Alexis Lanternier. "It's an industry-wide issue," He continues, "and we are committed to leading the way in increasing transparency by helping music fans identify which albums include AI music'. "Most of the daily delivery of AI tracks are never streamed on Deezer, but they are diluting the catalog and are used for fraudulent activity," says Qobuz. "Today up to 70% of all streams of fully AI-generated tracks are fraudulent." That raises a really interesting point when it comes to AI-generated music in general. I'll update the article when I hear back from more services as well. Recently, Spotify completely cut revenue for any band that falls below 1000 monthly streams, making it harder than ever for small bands to make any kind of money on streaming. I spoke to a small band, SorryPark, who've put in all the hard graft you'd expect for a band that wants to be seen on Spotify. "We've had 553 unique listeners over the last 28 Days," bassist Halil tells me. This can "fluctuate between 400-800," he continues, "but with good playlisting around new releases, we can get 4 figures." This is a band that has played "close to 100" live shows, come close to winning battle of the bands competitions, and filled out smaller local venues. They've appeared at Festivals, supported much larger acts, and released singles and an album. They're active on social media, with TikTok, Instagram and Facebook accounts. The band is putting in the work, but they're not able to garner the same impressive listening numbers as an act that's appeared out of nowhere. How much money have they made from Spotify streaming? Not "enough to write home about, unfortunately." They cover all their recording costs themselves, including a small private studio and producer for their full-length album. So I ask Halil about AI music, and how he can see it affecting the band and its chances. "I can't speak for the rest of the band, but it's so demoralizing seeing a free and humanless track getting tens or hundreds of thousands of streams," he tells me, "something we could only dream of." "We're back in the studio next week," he continues, "to sit down and record two new singles. The amount of effort that goes into our music is incredible, and that's before we've taken time off to travel to the studio." How do we support bands like this? "Come to gigs, buy merch! But also stream our music, share our socials. Just make more people aware of us." And that's one thing you'll never be able to do with AI music — go and see it live. There will be a very real person (or people) behind "The Velvet Sundown." An AI model can't (yet) make this all unprompted for itself, as you might imagine. Yet there are lots of questions to be asked about AI music on streaming apps beyond the latest band on the block. AI music isn't a new problem. We've all seen adverts on Instagram for playlists of "Fantasy Music to Help You Sleep" that are 10s of hours long, and filled with eerily similar tracks that would almost fit into The Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Deezer knows it's a problem, and has made efforts to make the problem as obvious as possible. But it's not something that's likely to go away, much to the chagrin of small acts like SorryPark. AI music takes algorithmic presence away from smaller acts, while garnering massive numbers of monthly listeners that could generate as much as $2,000 per month. "The Velvet Sundown" doesn't seem to have had any marketing, but, by covering them like this, they're getting it for free. By highlighting the issue, are we making it worse? I'd like to hope we're doing the opposite, but I suspect the truth is something more uncomfortable. So. If you care about the music you listen to, it's more important than ever to go to those live shows and buy merch. Or, if you don't care, go ahead and listen to "The Velvet Sundown" — it might be the future of music streaming.
