Mysterious band The Velvet Sundown soars in popularity, fuelling AI music debate

John Vennavally-Rao reports on AI-created songs going viral and the accompanying debate over whether they should be clearly labeled for music fans.

A mysterious rock band that may not be a band at all has soared in popularity on music streaming sites, raising fresh concerns over the rise of artificial intelligence in the music industry.

The group, known as The Velvet Sundown, amassed nearly a million listeners in just a few weeks. But many observers aren’t sure the band even exists in the traditional sense.

Reddit and TikTok users were among the first to flag the group’s two albums, which appeared suddenly on Spotify and other platforms in June. A growing number of listeners believe the music is entirely AI-generated.

In a promotional video for the band, a voice asks, “Are you sure we’re not real?”

AI-generated songs have been flooding streaming services daily, but The Velvet Sundown is drawing particular attention as debate heats up over whether platforms should be required to label music created using artificial intelligence.

Music journalist Eric Alper gave the music a listen and described it as “pretty good,” with a sound reminiscent of “generic 1970s southern swamp rock” and bands like Kansas and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

“So far, there’s really no indication that the music industry cares a whit about mentioning what is AI and what’s not,” said Alper, pointing to a 2023 Billboard magazine study that found 35 per cent of songs on the Hot 100 chart used at least some form of AI.

Another fully AI-generated band, The Devil Inside, has also made waves. Its biggest track, Bones in the River, has more than 1.7 million plays on Spotify.

Currently, Spotify has no rules preventing the upload of AI-generated music, and listeners can be unaware they’re streaming content created by machines.

Meanwhile, French music streaming platform Deezer has taken a different approach. In April, it reported that 18 per cent of the new songs uploaded to its service were fully AI-generated—about 20,000 songs a day. Last month, Deezer became the first major platform to launch an AI detection tool that flags such content for users.

“AI is not inherently good or bad, but we believe a responsible and transparent approach is key to building trust with our users and the music industry,” said Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier in late June. On Thursday, Lanternier confidently told NBC News the music from The Velvet Sundown is “100 per cent” AI-generated.

The explosive growth of generative AI in music has also prompted a wave of lawsuits, with musicians and songwriters alleging their material is being used without permission to train AI models.

Websites like Suno and Udio now allow users to generate entire songs using only text prompts. And experts say the technology is getting better—fast.

“The quality is so high that it’s almost impossible to tell that a machine created it,” said CTV News technology analyst Carmi Levy.

“It’s basically the wild west across Spotify, because you can post content and you’re not required to let anyone know that it is, in fact, AI-generated,” Levy added.

CTV News approached people in downtown Toronto to get their opinions on the band and AI music. After listening to some of the music, many said they would like to see it identified as being machine-made.

“If I knew it was AI I probably wouldn’t listen to it, even if it was good,” said Yasmin Mkalaf. “So, I think they should definitely be transparent with that for sure.”

Asked if he’d listen to AI-generated music, Paul Groche had a different take: “If it’s a good song and I like it, then sure, why not?”

Others, like Mahshad Jalali, disagree.

“I do have a Spotify subscription and I kind of don’t like that I’m supporting that now,” she said. “Because I do pay for it.”

Tech expert Levy said, “I think the industry in general—whether the tech industry, the music industry and, quite frankly, all of us—need to arrive at standards for labelling content that was created using artificial intelligence. Right now, it’s anything goes.”