An "indie rock band" called The Velvet Sundown, which is marketing its music with AI-generated pictures of members that don't appear to exist, is now claiming that "we never use AI."
After being publicly accused of being the fabrication of AI, an "official" X account for the band is now seemingly attempting to control the narrative, or at least to gin up a few more streams.
"Absolutely crazy that so-called 'journalists' keep pushing the lazy, baseless theory that The Velvet Sundown is 'AI-generated' with zero evidence," the account wrote in a Sunday tweet. "Not a single one of these 'writers' has reached out, visited a show, or listened beyond the Spotify algorithm."
Anything's possible, but it's a hard denial to believe. All the band's "photos" are obviously AI-generated, and its bio previously referenced a nonexistent writeup by Billboard. If that stuff's all fake, why should we believe that the band's music — or its protestations — are genuine?
The incident highlights the turbulent effect that generative AI is having on the music industry. It's been a hotly debated topic, with numerous mainstream artists voicing their support for AI regulation in light of a tidal wave of AI slop flooding streaming platforms.
The Velvet Sundown, which is currently racking up more than 550,000 listens per month on Spotify, drew scrutiny on social media when users raised red flags about the band's authenticity.
"As a music maker, it breaks my heart," one Reddit user wrote. "As a music lover and Spotify user, I find it offensive that there is no mention anywhere that it is a fabricated band."
"Report this shit man..." they added. "What else can we do?"
Spotify competitor Deezer also flagged the band's most recent album, "Dust and Silence," as being "AI-generated content," noting that "some tracks on this album may have been created using artificial intelligence."
In our own investigation, we found no evidence that any of its purported "members" actually exist. The band's Instagram page is chock full of images that are clearly AI generated, suggesting that its latest claim to "never use AI" is misleading at best.
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