Spotify Is Swamped With AI Cover Bands Farming Millions Of Streams

(Hypebot) — Spotify is swamped with AI cowl bands farming thousands and thousands of streams from unwitting customers, in response to a number of studies.

Spotify is swamped with AI cowl bands

Covers of standard songs are being added to present playlists subsequent to dozens of songs by actual artists, netting thousands and thousands of streams and getting paid.

A crew of Reddit sleuths uncovered “bands” with names like Freeway Outlaws, Waterfront Wranglers, and Saltwater Saddles that share particular attributes:

• month-to-month listeners within the lots of of 1000’s.
• no significant social media footprint
• bios that look like generated by AI
• None had unique music—solely covers.

Basic nation, ambient, digital, and jazz are among the many genres most frequently coated by AI cowl bands.

“Apparently this has been happening for a number of years…” mentioned calibuildr, the Reddit person posting the preliminary thread. “I feel the brand new factor right here is that with A.I. being this client product, anyone could make a factor with vocals now.”

Not simply cowl songs…

Taking issues one step additional, some established metalcore artists have discovered AI-generated music launched below their title however with out their permission.

“This isn’t ALPHA WOLF, metalcore has been hacked, WE ARE WORKING ON REMOVING ASAP,” wrote one band.

It is probably not unlawful.

Whereas thousands and thousands of streams by AI artists imply the share of royalties left to pay professional musicians is smaller, the follow is probably not unlawful.

If—and it’s a giant if—the people behind the AI covers pay songwriter royalties or the streamer detects the author and pays, then no legislation has been damaged.

That leaves the policing of “faux” music as much as Spotify and the opposite streamers. Along with the difficulties of figuring out the offending tracks, to date, their insurance policies and enforcement have been uneven at finest.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Company, and a Berklee Faculty Of Music professor.