This is how musicians, producers and others in the industry describe the constant proliferation of AI clones. Of course, AI fakes are nothing novel, but as fraudsters become more brazen, artists are responding with increasing fury.
In 2023, we got a taste of a lot of Drake’s AI songs. However, over the last two years the problem has worsened. Everyone from Beyonceto an experimental composer William Basiński Counterfeit songs, possibly generated by artificial intelligence, appear to be playing alongside their names. This week, King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard became the newest targets. Frontman Stu Mackenzie reacted with anger but also resignation, to say the least Music“We are truly lost.”
Spotify has taken steps to address the issue by formalizing its anti-impersonation policy and removing 75 million spam songs from its service. But the scale of the problem and the way the current system works make it tough to stop. Deezer says 50,000 AI-generated songs are uploaded to its library every day, accounting for more than 34 percent of music downloads.
Bad actors are taking advantage of the fact that music isn’t streamed directly to Spotify and several other streamers; instead it goes through a third party distribution service like DistroKid. It is not clear whether there are any methods in place to check whether someone uploading a song is who they say they are. (DistroKid did not respond to a request for comment.)
This is how a reggaeton song, apparently generated by artificial intelligence, ended up on the Spotify page of William Basiński, an artist specializing in ambient songs built around the sounds of colliding black holes, decaying tape loops and shortwave radio broadcasts. “This is complete nonsense,” he said Edge. “Luckily my label and distributors keep an eye on this idiocy… What a mess.”
Reply from Luke Temple from Here We Go Magicwhose dormant team was reactivated by AI cheaters was similar. Here We Go Magic hasn’t released novel music since 2015, but after the song AI was featured on the band’s Spotify page, Temple said NPR that “it’s so terrible.” Similarly, when an AI-generated song titled “Name This Night” appeared on Toto’s Spotify page in July, the guitarist Steve Lukather in a statement, he called it “shameless.” The ultimate classic rock.
It’s possible that some of these fakes are not AI, but AI makes them much faster and easier to produce. Although Suno is designed to ignore artist-specific prompts, it’s still uncomplicated to generate entire songs with just a few words.
“This is total bullshit… What a mess.”
— Willam Basiński
Breaking Rust is not a clone of any particular artist, but Blanco Brown accuses the creator of basing it on his vocals. Brown said AP about how someone texted him to let him know that “someone put your name into AI and created a white version of you. They just used Blanco, not Brown.”
Brown’s manager, Ryan McMahan, agreed LinkedInsaying: “Artificial intelligence can run a formula. It cannot recreate Blanco’s life experience from which it draws. It cannot recreate the humanity, conviction or duration of emotion that shaped his artistic voice.”
Breaking Rust gained attention by climbing to the top of the Billboard Country digital song sales chart as a result misleading headlines about artificial intelligence topping the charts in each country. But these aren’t the Country Streaming Songs or Balmy Country Songs charts. The song sales chart takes into account things like iTunes purchases, and since almost no one buys songs on iTunes anymore, “Walk My Walk” came out on top with just 3,000 purchases. It’s possible that whoever is behind this song just they bought their way to the top.
Solomon Ray, an AI-powered gospel work, achieved similar chart success and sparked a backlash. Christianity today Ray said “there is no soul” which was repeated by the Christian artist Forrest Frankwho said on Instagram that: “Artificial intelligence does not have the Holy Spirit in it… It’s really weird to open your spirit to something that has no spirit.”
Although Solomon Ray does not appear to be a direct clone, there is a real person, Solomon Ray, who is also a singer and worship leader. Ray (the real one) said Christianity today“How much heart do you put into it? If the AI generates it for you, the answer is zero.”
In addition to composing using artificial intelligence, some are trying to take advantage of the growing confusion. A producer named Haven it went viral after the not-so-subtle suggestion that the song with AI-manipulated vocals was an unreleased Jorja Smith song. Of course, the vocals weren’t actually Smith’s; were processed using Suno and the song was removed from streaming services.
Harrison Walker (Haven’s creator) tried to make money by re-recording the song and even trying to get Smith on a remix. Now it’s Smith and her label FAMM demanding royalties from Haven. In the statement regarding InstagramFAMM stated that “creators are collateral damage in the race of governments and corporations towards AI dominance.”
The United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) organization has made no secret of its position when it calls AI music “exploitation” – said organizer Joey La Neve DeFrancesco Edge that “AI has given Spotify and major labels the ability to completely eliminate human artists and the royalties owed to them. The streaming giant and major labels have already struck deals with AI-powered music companies.”
While some of the biggest labels like Warner are starting to take an interest in generative artificial intelligence companies, musicians have found an ally in iHeartRadio. Company president Tom Poleman said further Instagram that “music is a uniquely human art form; a creativity, storytelling, and soul that no algorithm can truly replicate.” He promised that the company will “never play AI-generated music with synthetic vocalists pretending to be human” and “will never utilize AI-generated on-air personalities or podcast creators.” “Sometimes you have to choose a side, and we are on the side of the people,” he concluded.
Holly Herndon is better at using artificial intelligence than most musicians, as she has used it extensively, including on her album Proto. But even she warned artists to beware of exploitation. In one of the episodes The most interesting thing about AI, She said she had expressed many of her concerns about training data and artists’ rights to some AI companies and “was amazed that they hadn’t really thought through this issue, they didn’t think people would be upset about it.”
DeFrancesco argues that: “It’s clear that we need regulations that force streaming services to identify AI content and remove it from streaming royalty pools.” United Musicians and Allied Workers urges Congress to pass Act on a Living Wage for Musicianswhich he says “protects artists from corporate utilize of AI” by creating a new royalty paid directly to musicians via streaming platforms that “would only be paid to human artists.”
For now, the onus is on artists and their fans to remain vigilant. Because, just like with videos and photos, in the age of artificial intelligence, music should be approached with skepticism.