Fake Bands and Artificial Songs are Taking Over YouTube and Spotify (elpais.com)
- Reference: 0178061581
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/16/0451226/fake-bands-and-artificial-songs-are-taking-over-youtube-and-spotify
- Source link: https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-06-15/fake-bands-and-artificial-songs-are-taking-over-youtube-and-spotify.html
> One of the major problems with this trend is the lack of transparency. María Teresa Llano, an associate professor at the University of Sussex who studies the intersection of creativity, art and AI, emphasizes this aspect: "There's no way for people to know if something is AI or not...." On Spotify Community — a forum for the service's users — [2]a petition is circulating that calls for clear labeling of AI-generated music, as well as an option for users to block these types of songs from appearing on their feeds. In some of these forums, the rejection of AI-generated music is palpable.
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> Llano mentions the feelings of deception or betrayal that listeners may experience, but asserts that this is a personal matter. There will be those who feel this way, as well as those who admire what the technology is capable of... One of the keys to tackling the problem is to include a warning on AI-generated songs. YouTube states that content creators must "disclose to viewers when realistic content [...] is made with altered or synthetic media, including [3]generative AI ." Users will see this if they glance at the description. But this is only when using the app, because on a computer, they will have to scroll down to the very end of the description to get the warning....
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> The professor from the University of Sussex explains one of the intangibles that justifies the labeling of content: "In the arts, we can establish a connection with the artist; we can learn about their life and what influenced them to better understand their career. With artificial intelligence, that connection no longer exists."
YouTube says they may label AI-generated content if they become aware of it, and may also remove it altogether, according to the article. But Spotify "hasn't shared any policy for labeling AI-powered content..."
> In an interview with Gustav Söderström, Spotify's co-president and chief product & technology officer, he emphasized that AI "increases people's creativity" because more people can be creative, thanks to the fact that "you don't need to have fine motor skills on the piano." He also made a distinction between music generated entirely with AI and music in which the technology is only partially used. But the only limit he mentioned for moderating artificial music was copyright infringement... something that has been a red line for any streaming service for many years now. And such a violation is very difficult to legally prove when artificial intelligence is involved.
[1] https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-06-15/fake-bands-and-artificial-songs-are-taking-over-youtube-and-spotify.html
[2] https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Marked-Disable-AI-Generated-Songs/idi-p/6641329
[3] https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-05-26/generative-ai-digs-the-graves-of-traditional-search-engines-and-virtual-assistants.html
You mean King Ass Ripper didn't compose this (Score:3)
[1]https://youtu.be/aHZHyRmv75M?s... [youtu.be]
I am sad
[1] https://youtu.be/aHZHyRmv75M?si=Y7ll8Yid19pUUYVH
Re: (Score:1)
Sonic Goatse? figgers
Re: You mean King Ass Ripper didn't compose this (Score:2)
I don't think goatse guy can fart anymore, probably more of a subsonic series of pulses.
modern music is trash anyway (Score:2)
It's about manchildren bragging about being pimps and criminals
Re: (Score:2)
[1]You must be talking about this band. [reddit.com]
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/AiPoliticalMemes/comments/1lclph6/pootie_and_the_blowhard_hottest_ban_in_the/
Re: modern music is trash anyway (Score:2)
TDS noted
Re: modern music is trash anyway (Score:1)
The sad thing is that the lack of brain function is not just limited to Old Joe.
Re: modern music is trash anyway (Score:1)
Are you the sharpest bulb?
Re: (Score:2)
Well, modern radio music (pop music).
In the last five years I discovered a whole spectrum of rock music that I didn't know even existed, from stoner rock, through space rock, then of course the whole lot from hardrock to extreme metal, and then post-metal. It helps that I like heavy guitars and complex compositions.
Re: (Score:2)
Translation: "I only listen to rap trash and am surprised that I seem to be the only person thinking music is trash. Why are other people enjoying themselves! Do they not understand that all modern music is rap? "
Problem solved! (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't use YouTube or Spotify for discovering or listening to music. Read reviews in the media. Get recs from friends. I've found awesome music that way.
Re: (Score:2)
That sounds like "solved" problem. But that's where I came from. The reality is the music recommended through reviews and friends is highly specific and comes in at a trickle. Opening a standard review page and you're lucky to get one music in even the genre let alone a sub genre that interests you. Likewise for friends, you run two risks: one: you have a friend like one of mine who listens to death metal - yes all his recommendations are worthless to me, and two: you have a friend like another of mine that
Or just buy CDs/Vinyl (Score:2)
The chance of these scammers paying to have a run of CDs or records pressed with their crap on is zero.
Not enforceable (Score:1)
A bot may be able to guess that something is AI, but banning people based on guesses is going to generate tension.
Tidal is completely overrun by AI (Score:4, Informative)
I used to be on Tidal. During that time I was playing in a funk band so while preparing for a concert I went to a lot of funk artist pages on Tidal. Some of those like CHIC, Rufus, Prince were completely overrun with AI. I sent emails to customer support, they said they would look into it, never did anything. This was about a year ago and the situation is not much improved:
Rufus - look under "Albums" and under "Singles" - this account is so overrun with AI slop that it's hard to find the actual content [1]https://listen.tidal.com/artis... [tidal.com]
CHIC - a year later, the singles and EPs section still has fake stuff in it; they have cleaned up the albums though [2]https://listen.tidal.com/artis... [tidal.com]
Prince - this one looks fine now. It was still filled with AI slop just a month ago though [3]https://listen.tidal.com/artis... [tidal.com]
Since then I've jumped ship and went to Apple Music, it's not perfect by any means but at least I don't see this problem as much.
[1] https://listen.tidal.com/artist/34575
[2] https://listen.tidal.com/artist/8112
[3] https://listen.tidal.com/artist/4847
Re: Tidal is completely overrun by AI (Score:1)
Why do you prefer human slop?
Re: (Score:1)
What's human slop? I prefer not to be lied to about who made a song.
Re: Tidal is completely overrun by AI (Score:1)
So is this about the stories you tell in your head when listening to music, not sound?
Re: (Score:1)
did you take your pills today?
Re: (Score:2)
Probably because they don't pretend to be someone else for clicks. That's the issue here. AI generated music is fine, just don't pretend to be an album from a real human, use a unique name.
But that doesn't generate profit as much as click farming does.
Re: Tidal is completely overrun by AI (Score:1)
Are you saying human bands don't lie to you for clicks? How come my brother used to think Robert Johnson covered the Stones?
Re: (Score:1)
Maybe your brother is just like you?
Is it making money? (Score:2)
If people are legitimately happy with what they're getting, it ought to tell you something about the oversampled, autotune-ridden crap being pushed these days. If a fake album allegedly released in 1973 (it wasn't) is such a hit that it's getting revenue, imagine what ACTUAL performers could do in 2025 if they learned from that lesson.
Duke Ellington (Score:2)
"If it sounds good it is good." - Duke Ellington
Telltale signs of AI are there (Score:2)
There's quite a few signs that AI made a piece of music, there's a general grittiness to it, the voices are very similar no matter the band.
Re: (Score:1)
Bots will get better over time
Re: Telltale signs of AI are there (Score:1)
Are you hallucinating?
Not a problem (Score:4, Insightful)
It is not a problem at all. I dont give a shit who or what created the music, as long as i enjoy it.
Pattern-based “creativity“ replaced by (Score:1)
So, after decades of claiming “music“ is dumbed-down repetitive noise accompanied by autotuned whining, this “creative“ industry faces annihilation by bots. Completely unexpected.
Does it matter if you can't tell? (Score:2)
"There's no way for people to know if something is AI or not...."
So where is the problem? If Spotify puts a nice song in one of my playlists and I like it, does it get worse the moment I become aware that it was AI generated?
I think sooner or later the streaming services will start to provide interactive radios that generate music on demand. Faster than realtime music generation is already here and there will be the point when it is viable to offer live generation of music according to the taste of the user
Re: Does it matter if you can't tell? (Score:2)
People often want to go see the bands that play music they enjoy. Imagine looking to find out where your favorite band is playing and realize they don't exist.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, but that's just life then and you may want to select the bands by hand anyway.
For just having some music playing I don't care too much, most important is that it doesn't distract me too much from work.
I wonder when we will see the first virtual concert of a virtual band ...
Creating an impressive stage show using video AI may be an interesting challenge for the creators of such models.
Re: (Score:2)
Amazon Music has an option to, "play similar music" with every playlist. Given all my options and tests at various services, this works best for me.
You can achieve similar results with Apple Music by creating a playlist, selecting the last song in the list and I can't remember exactly the option to select, I think it is infinity music, it works but with a serious messed up UI/UX.
"increases people's creativity" (Score:2)
I wish there was an option in Spotify to filter out any AI generated trash in Discover Weekly. No, I don't want to discover extremely bland lyrics with an autotune-sounding voiceover.
Re:Also. (Score:5, Funny)
She's not going to date you dude, give up already
Re: (Score:2)
Did you confuse this with the E! Magazine forums? No one here gives a shit about a bunch of Hollywood types.
Re: "increases people's creativity" (Score:2)
I just listened to known musicians and not random ones. Eliminates most of the issues.
Re: "increases people's creativity" (Score:1)
Drum machines and sequence generators are hardly new and player pianos have been around since forever. So why are they moaning about music generators now?
Re: "increases people's creativity" (Score:2)
Drum machines and sequencers are still human controlled. Player pianos were originally played by a person.