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"There's not a shred of evidence on the internet that this band has ever existed": This apparently AI-generated artist (Velvet Sundown) is racking up hundreds of thousands of Spotify streams
Music Radar ^ | June 27, 2025 | Matt Mullen

Posted on 07/01/2025 5:39:56 PM PDT by DoodleBob

…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”.

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.

(Excerpt) Read more at musicradar.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Society
KEYWORDS: ai; aiand; aiband; velvet; velvetsundown

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1 posted on 07/01/2025 5:39:56 PM PDT by DoodleBob
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To: DoodleBob

I’m sure they’re better than Taylor Swift and all the other cookie cutter crap.


2 posted on 07/01/2025 5:47:05 PM PDT by JZelle
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To: JZelle
I know those guys! I was in a band with them!
3 posted on 07/01/2025 5:49:04 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: JZelle

It’s worse.

They’re AI AND country.


4 posted on 07/01/2025 5:57:43 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: DoodleBob

First clue that they aren’t real;
The group members never seem to change their clothes, like not in any way. Even Denim Boy could be seen in the various indigo blues that denim often comes in.

The orange life jackets appear to have been photographed under electric light, there is almost no direct source of light.
The background shows a warmer spectrum natural light.

Who is eating Burger Number 5?

First guy in pic 1, shows a cleft in his chin. Cleft is missing in last two pics.


5 posted on 07/01/2025 5:59:32 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: lee martell

And the guy in the corner seat has no plate and no fries.


6 posted on 07/01/2025 6:02:22 PM PDT by TigersEye (The Golden Age of MAGA is upon us!)
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To: DoodleBob

Still probably better than 90% of electro music.


7 posted on 07/01/2025 6:04:30 PM PDT by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
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To: TigersEye

Yeah. What’s that about?
But, if the music is appealing, I’m sure the average person would overlook all these little details and rationalize it away. “Why does that bother you?” will be the reply.


8 posted on 07/01/2025 6:06:15 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: DoodleBob

Rick Beato has an episode on this AI band...

“So It Begins...Is This A Real Band Or AI?”
In this episode I dissect a song by the band The Velvet Sundown that may or may not be AI, and discuss what this means for the future of music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nlb-m_vKYM


9 posted on 07/01/2025 6:08:32 PM PDT by newfreep ("There is no race problem...just a problem race")
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To: MotorCityBuck; Rocco DiPippo; Drumbo; kvanbrunt2; Westbrook; PROCON; real saxophonist; Lurker; ...

Music ping


10 posted on 07/01/2025 6:09:49 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: lee martell

It’s a little weird. Plus there are only two drinks on the table.

I don’t drink soda anymore but I’d have to have something to drink with a burger and fries.
AI doesn’t really get humans. Yet.


11 posted on 07/01/2025 6:17:31 PM PDT by TigersEye (The Golden Age of MAGA is upon us!)
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To: TigersEye

No ketchup. No napkins. No bites. No dribbles...

Definitely aliens.


12 posted on 07/01/2025 6:28:32 PM PDT by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". 🔴 Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with MARS ♂️, aka every man)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; BraveMan; cardinal4; ...

So It Begins...Is This A Real Band Or AI?
9:12
Rick Beato
5.06M subscribers
820,110 views
June 30, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nlb-m_vKYM


13 posted on 07/01/2025 6:28:40 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: lee martell
Cleft is missing in last two pics

!!!

14 posted on 07/01/2025 6:41:55 PM PDT by 11th_VA
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To: lee martell

The other is that they all look alike to a degree and they’re all good looking.


15 posted on 07/01/2025 6:44:38 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
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To: DoodleBob

Fake band. Fake musicians. Fake music. Fake photos. Fake fame. Real money is being generated through royalty algorithms from pure fakery because it’s viewed by huge numbers of people. Are the viewers even real?

Is this the fake world we now live in?

AI means fraud can rise to the tenth power and nothing we experience is now real.


16 posted on 07/01/2025 6:46:16 PM PDT by Gnome1949
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To: DoodleBob

Reminds me of these guys.

https://youtu.be/3p-Vro5zJ_Q?feature=shared


17 posted on 07/01/2025 6:50:19 PM PDT by 31R1O (The people who can control themselves ought to be able to defend themselves from those who can't.)
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To: TigersEye

And 5 burgers


18 posted on 07/01/2025 6:51:46 PM PDT by 556x45
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To: DoodleBob

I went to the site to read the article, and it put me in mind of the following statement.

“Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.”

-Frank Zappa


19 posted on 07/01/2025 6:55:05 PM PDT by wrcase
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To: Gnome1949
Are the viewers even real?

Is this the fake world we now live in?

Good questions. The answer? NO.
Look into "dead internet theory".
There's a reason the internet is not as good as it used to be. Most of the content, and the viewers, are bots.
The rest of us (real humans) or only spectators observing it.


20 posted on 07/01/2025 6:56:43 PM PDT by chud
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