Disturbing truth behind new rock band with more than 1,000,000 Spotify listeners after releasing two albums in one month
In a matter of weeks, alternative band The Velvet Sundown quite literally went from zero to hero, appearing out of nowhere and racking up more than 900,000 followers on Spotify. Now, the truth behind the group has been revealed.
If The Velvet Sundown haven't made it to your Spotify playlists yet, the band went viral last month after dropping two albums, Floating on Echoes and Dust and Silence.
It usually takes artists years to curate and perfect their releases, but The Velvet Sundown shows no sign of slowing down as Spotify has a third album, Paper Sun Rebellion, listed as being released in just three days.
With 1.2 million monthly listeners, the band are clearly on the right track with their music. But there's just one catch - they don't actually exist.
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Obviously, the music is real - you can listen to it yourself. It just so happens to be created using artificial intelligence.
On July 5, the band released a statement on its official Facebook page which explained: "The Velvet Sundown is a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence.
"This isn’t a trick - it’s a mirror. An ongoing artistic provocation designed to challenge the boundaries of authorship, identity, and the future of music itself in the age of AI.
"All characters, stories, music, voices and lyrics are original creations generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools employed as creative instruments. Any resemblance to actual places, events or persons - living or deceased - is purely coincidental and unintentional.
"Not quite human. Not quite machine. The Velvet Sundown lives somewhere in between."
Understandably the revelation has shocked the music community, though there was already speculation about the band given the fact there was little information about it prior to the release of its albums.
There wasn't any information about the band's four members, and photos of them appeared incredibly smooth and airbrushed - as AI-generated images often are.
Now the truth behind the band has been confirmed, listeners have mixed opinions.
One listener, Jamie Jones from the UK, told The Washington Post: “If they’re (Spotify) putting in five songs to the playlist from the same AI band, and Spotify knows it’s AI, you’re taking food out of people’s mouths who are trying to make it in that business. That’s pretty wrong.”
However, another took to Twitter to praise the music, writing: "As much as I wanted to hate that Ai band “ The Velvet Sundown” I honestly think it’s friggin good after listening."
Though the revelation has caused controversy, The Velvet Sundown remains available to stream on Spotify.
In a statement, the streaming service told UNILAD: "Spotify does not prioritise AI-generated music. We do not own music, and it doesn’t cost Spotify less. All music on Spotify, including AI-generated music, is created, owned, and uploaded by licensed third parties."
Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Spotify, Music, Viral
Emily Brown