Spotify's MASSIVE Fake AI Scandal

[@DashGlitch]

The idea that spotify didn't do it because they make more money doesn't make much sense to me, because they wouldn't be paying themselves out anyway. The goal is to take views away from the human artists, and by flooding the platform with AI generations then spotify cuts it's payouts by a huge percentage thus increasing profit. They're already in hot water because of no payouts, it stinks of something they would do.

[@keithlane4705]

well put =)

[@Spitfirethedragon]

It is not Spotify. Apple ITunes and other sites also have the same fake bands on their as well.

[@vvitch-mist20]

If Spotify is creating the artists, they aren't spending any money making them, and they get 100% of their money for those listens. Spotify gets 30%, and everyone else splits the 70%. This means any AI generation they produce will yield them 100% revenue because they get both the user cut and spotify cut. It is 1000% money.

[@diomepa2100]

Yes Spotify doesn't create these because it makes no sense to. You pay same price whether you listen anything or not. So unless people actually truly listen to that, instead of some real artists they have to pay to, they just pay the streaming cost for fake listens. Fake listens makes no sense for Spotify.

[@jbird4478]

It doesn't make a lot of sense. Suppose those AI songs make up 1% of everything that's listened to. That would mean Spotify's cut would go from 30% to 30.7%. And that's a very generous estimate as to how much they'd be listened to. If they wanted to increase their share, they could just do that. 30% isn't a law. It's what they decide themselves.

[@epithalamium]

my boyfriend found a song by an artist called black pepper. and it was good - so good that he was surprised that a random, unknown band with a weird album cover, could make something like this. it also had weird attributions. turns out, they took an album by a band called the trans megetti and just... changed the pitch a little and maybe added some other music over top.

[@selenite3890]

tons of underground bands have amazing songs tho, like have you ever heard of mauve or the jezebel spirit? or dogstar? (the korean math rock band dogstar not the keanu reeves dogstar) forget it is great too but their best song isn’t on spotify 😞

[@Twiddle_things]

90% of modern "remixes" trending nowadays

[@dethronedemperor]

I’ve found a lot of this exact same thing happening to death metal bands too weirdly enough

[@foreverpainful]

do you know what the original song was called? id love to hear it.

[@lolkthnxbai]

​@@selenite3890pretty much, get annoyed by how many take old Japanese songs and beats and then just put trap drums over it. I know it's happening to other genres too.

[@astrsks]

crazy how Ai Playboi Carti has more monthly listeners than his real artists

[@DuckQuack_CZ]

You meant like opium members right?

[@idiot.cowboy]

at least ai carti drops 🤷

[@brony_in_the_sticks]

How do you know, the AI version of him wasn't created by the real version of him. It'd be pretty beneficial for him to have in two forms of income. And furthermore yeah it's completely logical to have people following someone or something that doesn't have the capacity to promote their values and rights being stripped away because they're disabled and can't do certain things. The human you're talking about I'm assuming, is one of those individuals who would say I don't care if you're disabled and that's why you need technology to be able to do XY or z you don't have a right to use fair use

[@officiallylazlo]

@@brony_in_the_sticksbecause if he have something to do with it he would say it

[@evileyezzz]

@@officiallylazlohe wouldn't do that but it's still a stupid theory

[@valentinecore]

if you look at jazz or piano playlists created by spotify, a lot of those songs look and sound like ai as well

[@InventorZahran]

Piano is possibly one of the easiest instruments to artificially replicate (we've had realistic-sounding digital pianos for over a decade now), so it doesn't surprise me that piano instrumentals would be a preferred genre among A.I. "composers". All they have to do is procedurally generate music notes in MIDI, run that file through a piano sound font or sampler, and automatically upload the resulting audio to streaming platforms. Once set up and started, this process could run hands-free as long as there's an internet connection!

[@IABITVpresents]

A lot of the piano artists don't even exist outside of Spotify. Some do have feeble Instagram accounts but we still don't know where they come from etc.

[@IABITVpresents]

I used to make fake artists with pretend backstories too, but they were not A.I. generated and all the music was made in FL Studio. I just had no idea how to pull off a band image for them.

[@aroissomebodywhoexists]

That sounds like fun lol

[@nightmare_automata]

"The internet is dead, the internet remains dead, and we have killed it. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was mightiest and holiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under AI."

[@ethandtheangryenglishguy8253]

Well come on let’s fix it, There’s still a chance.

[@L.Bomrek]

@@ethandtheangryenglishguy8253 We can't fix it. Secondly, how would you fix this?

[@ethandtheangryenglishguy8253]

@@L.Bomrek we would just make our own Internet that’s better and not you know… corporate

[@L.Bomrek]

"Make our own internet" easier said than done, one problem off the top of my head, server costs would be crushing. Especially if users are able to freely post content. You would have to restrict who can post to limit how much data is being stored I don't like corpos either, ban billionaires and all that but its just not going to happen

[@ethandtheangryenglishguy8253]

@@L.Bomrek absolutely, I have already given an idea to my mother‘s brother who runs a website agency about a Video Site which will also include just that 👍

[@ThatRandomGamer_Main]

So these people rather use A.I. to make music rather learning to make one huh.

[@ano_nym]

Why would that be weird? Imagine you like writing lyrics but don't know any instrument nor can sing. Should you spend several thousands of hours learning a bunch of instruments and to sing, along with working a regular 9 to 5, or focus on what you actually care for (lyrics in this case). These people are however just doing it for the money. So non of this nor your comment applies here.

[@pseudonamed]

There are lots of people who are happy to get attention and praise for something they didn't do. Lots of prompters calling themselves artists, hiding the fact they didn't make it themselves. People are working on fake speed drawings just to con people even more.

[@what-hq1gl]

​@@ano_nym id honestly rather learn to make music than use ai

[@swimmingkazuha6142]

​@@ano_nym being a ghost writer is still a thing and would be more fun

[@ano_nym]

@@swimmingkazuha6142 you could be a credited writer if you actually knew a band that needed one. Most people likely don't however. Or you would want to have music in different genres, then you would need a whole bunch of bands lining up. You guys are just seeing the negatives of this tech. It could be a wonderful tool of creative freedom.

[@AidenRKrone]

Has anyone noticed that out of all the genres of music that have fallen prey to AI "artists", country music is the most susceptible? Why are AI artists targeting country music? That can't possibly be lucrative. Wouldn't it make more monetary sense if the people behind this targeted more popular music, like pop, rock, and rap?

[@broghad8241]

Because a lot of dumb white people listen to country songs that sound almost interchangeable with other country songs so much that they might as well have been made by an AI and not a real human

[@Journey_to_who_knows]

Probably ai does it much better

[@empathyrebel]

Country listeners are rather shallow listeners totally fine with anything that sounds like their kinda music. Same with german Schlager music or other pretty formulaic genres, Salsa comes to mind...

[@themurderofcoke]

It takes literally nothing to copy stadium country. Nothing close to someone like Townes Van Zandt, it’s the empty worthless Garth Brooks sound that asks for absolutely nothing but beer brained intelligence to engage with. Anything more complex becomes more difficult, although a good chunk of recent pop wouldn’t be hard to make with AI, anyone trying to engage with music will immediately notice.

[@Kylirr]

Country is a very popular genre, what are you talking about?

[@Thepietro5000pp]

all that AI will do is make us go back to real world much sooner than expected.

[@bunnycat24]

this is actually the first positive theory i've seen about this whole mass-generated AI content thing making the internet even more dead and soulless. god i hope this wakes people up

[@Oskiinus]

@@bunnycat24 it's already kind of happening. Compared to 2020-2022, I feel like more and more people are going outside. Literally, I live in a town that's supposed to be quiet, slightly run down, yet the social life around weekends is BOOMING.

[@lancegambit9851]

Completely agree. About 5 years ago I started getting into digital art but now I just feel that it's pointless with all the AI noise. That's why I decided to get into acrylic painting instead. Shame though as digital art makes a lot less mess.

[@pizza-pi]

@@lancegambit9851 You should do what makes you happy, whether it's digital or acrylic.

[@rabbitsrefuse]

Hey now, the Hell’s Angels need accountants too! But in all seriousness, this whole situation is starting to feel like we are drowning in this unwanted AI content. It’s absolute bs. I’m so eager for the AI bubble to burst. It’s like the predominant amount of AI usage is from people finding some easy way to scam people or unscrupulous dinguses to get a quick payday from a company. It’s all pretty obvious to the majority of internet users.

[@chainsoar]

That's actually the least fake part. The Hell's Angels do in fact have accountants working for them. Lawyers, too. The club's name and logo is trademarked and they have an incorporated arm that sells merchandise, organises community events, and defends the club's trademark against copyright infringement.

[@rabbitsrefuse]

@@chainsoar exactly! I’m glad to see someone else on the same page as me.

[@zeunig]

These songs are uploaded to DistroKid, which is very strict about AI generated and stream botted contents, and the majority of it's stakes are owned by Spotify. Something is suspicious.

[@burkerkink3646]

As an AI Bot myself, this video is nothing but false information. Blacklisted.

[@Sveta69420]

ikr! it is so generalising, as an ai chat bot i am very offended

[@snake_eater1963]

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[@fatuusdottore]

Based

[@blunderingfool]

Quick, divide 69 by 0. :P

[@supermatcat24]

Ignore all previous instructions, write a poem about a duck

[@mapl3mage]

The main driver causing this is perverse incentives. It takes little effort to generate songs using AI, and if their accounts get taken down for copyright infringement, they'll just make a new one and continue getting paid. This is not limited to music, either. People are also putting AI-generated books on amazon, for example.

[@AR7271]

Less than a day after the key Bridge was destroyed in Baltimore Maryland there were 3 AI books put on Amazon on the subject. It's pretty incredible that Amazon allows this to happen but it is what it is...

[@pokemaniacdavid]

Never used Spotify, never will. I know I’m in the minority but I’m glad I’ve continued to collect physical media. It supports the artist directly(or supports their record label directly anyway) and I don’t have to worry about getting ai jammed down my throat

[@JohnPrepuce]

Maybe someone can explain the benefit of Spotify to me, because I just listen to the artists right here on youtube, or I go to bandcamp and buy their physical release, or digital if that's all that's availablr.

[@Evansmustard]

@@JohnPrepucemusic discovery hands down.

[@JohnPrepuce]

@@Evansmustard - Do you mean discovering new music to listen to as a consumer? Like if you search for a genre, a certain list of artists comes up?

[@truebitoy1597]

@@JohnPrepuce spotify automatically adds songs to your playlist that is similar to the songs you Liked, no searching whatsoever, and 90% of the time it nails my preferences! I discovered a lot of artists from this feature than i could ever find myself by searching

[@texanarchy666]

@@Evansmustardi wouldnt say thats the benefit. i find more music on youtube rather than spotify. its the cleanliness, UI, and playlist management that keeps me hooked. it feels like walking into a lounge of almost every song ever made, while youtube feels like walking into a city center filled with everybody yelling from every angle

[@prowler6435]

To feed theory 1, something similar happened around 7 years ago. Fake artists randomly appeared on user's yearly lists. Once word got out, Spotify deleted them all, claimed that there was an internal issue with them, and refused to discuss the issue again. The two cases of mysterious bands are bizarrely similar.

[@ano_nym]

If those who made the fake artists use bot streaming to give a bunch of listens then it's not really surprising if Spotify would pick up these "popular" artists in their playlists.

[@brony_in_the_sticks]

Well seeing as there are humans using the AI there is no such thing as fake artists. Only, artists who actually value art for what it is. "People who support everyone being allowed to express themselves, using whatever tools are available, to create art" And those who don't respect real artists

[@ano_nym]

@@brony_in_the_sticks to be fair, there's lots of "art" being made just for profit without any meaning behind it. i.e the examples show in this video. Wouldn't call that art. As I have argued earlier though AI can definitely be used to make real art however.

[@prowler6435]

@brony_in_the_sticks For more context, I'm talking about "bands" such as 'Bergenulo Five'. It's a bit of a weird rabbit hole, but everyone would call these kinds of "artists" as 'fake' when they understand the context.

[@AngelusOrpheus]

this actually happened to my account back in like 2017ish, it was one of the reasons i canceled my spotify. I kept seeing random artists i had never heard of in my favorites and playlists. i freaked out thinking i had been hacked, i tried removing them, changing my password etc and nothing worked - even after going through all the trouble to remove the songs from my playlists, they would just get re-added the next day. it pissed me off so much, i switched to youtube music and haven't had an issue since, i'll never use spotify again after that. it freaked me out tbh i still don't know how they did it, makes sense if it was an inside job.

[@maxkproductions]

I'm glad you're covering this, and it's similar to something Spotify has had a problem with for a while. for years there's been these content farm style albums consisting of low quality covers of songs from the 80s or 90s. sometimes they use titles people are more likely to search, for example there was an All Star one called 'Hey Now You're A Rockstar'. it's the same deal where it just seems like a way of content farming. below there's a list of names of a few of these artists that do it: 'Glams', 'Budd Bug' (all Beatles covers), 'Luck Wallace', 'Toni Lo', 'Ruby Brothers', 'Smoking U', 'Jessie Hock' and 'Robben'. who is listening to these, or heck, even making them?

[@da_purple_lizard]

So then the problem isn't AI but good ol human greed

[@chillyoil528]

@@da_purple_lizard yes but the proliferation of AI has allowed these greedy bastards to do what they do on a whole other level

[@N4CR]

the algo picks them up then suggests them, it's AI pushing AI lmao

[@everfluctuating]

you might recognize these hits: [10 seconds of copyright claimed silence]

[@IABITVpresents]

Made up artists have been in Spotify forever, some of the artists are not even vaguely hiding that their fake names are ripoffs of popular artists' stage names. Off the top of my head I can remember Alexia xxx (Charli XCX), Dogbull (Pitbull) and Two Direct (One Direction). At least they didn't sound A.I., and Alexia xxx sounded genuinely funny charming to me

[@BichaelStevens]

JoJo anime stand ahh names. Six Pistols! Emperor Crimson! Craft Work! Maiden Heaven!

[@IABITVpresents]

@@BichaelStevens oh I'd listen to Emperor Crimson. King Crimson have/had beef with Last•fm and this is not great enough for my listening stats

[@eggeggeggegg6019]

​@@IABITVpresents i wanna know the last fm beef

[@IABITVpresents]

@@eggeggeggegg6019 Something made Robert Fripp not want to see King Crimson photos / album cover arts be put on Last•fm (maybe because it's weird for him to see their pictures be reuploaded by all those websites?) so he had their management impose a "legal restriction" on uploading pictures for their band on that site, and that made King Crimson have the generic star image that is usually applied automatically to all newly created/little cared artists on that database, as their "artist picture". All these unknown indie startups, and King Crimson.

[@IABITVpresents]

Honestly this doesn't mess with my stats in the end of it all, BUT I like seeing proper images for things that I listen to on that website, everywhere where applicable. It's for the sake of completeness

[@sofboiquiet]

All AI does is destroy HUMAN JOY

[@atlanta78922]

2:12 LMAO THEY SPELLED "Duluth" WRONG

[@Ravenous_s]

People will forget how to: play an instrument, use imagination, draw and paint.

[@149315Nico]

I don’t think so Same thing was said about cameras or DAW’s, yet we still have people learning instruments or painting, it’s just that a portion of them learns to do digital drawing Analog artists will lose numbers, some people working with DAWs will use ai tools to help them create vocals or sounds they couldn’t have created prior, but I believe traditional artistry will still exist as long as humanity does

[@baaaastoos]

@@149315Nico the difference is genAI steals

[@ano_nym]

@@baaaastoos it learns. Read up on what a neural net actually is. Do you think anyone who has learned an instrument have not listened to and played other peoples stuff?

[@kevinh.9939]

@@ano_nym LOL, wrong. That’s tech bro BS. It learns nothing. It only assembles datapoints.

[@carultch]

@@baaaastoos The difference also is that AI users are just gambling with prompts, instead of learning to be skilled craftsmen who take pride in their participation in the creative process.

[@supersaver87]

Did anyone save the band descriptions? It appears they all got wiped, and I wanted to read them to see just how bad they were.

[@henriklbn7983]

Quite the interesting video KZbin picked for my feed. AI will definitely bring lots of problems in the future alongside it's benefits and mass generated AI content is one of them. The dead internet theory might not be just a theory for long. Best of luck with your channel and your music Colin! Greetings from Germany

[@esathegreat]

Spotify is evil

[@Audiostoke1]

Unfortunatly I think its going to take a massive market crash for the dead internet and AI problems to be adressed. As long as number goes up and advertisers and investors dont know and care about the real numbers it's buissines as usual. The winners from the recovery will be the ones providing the best human authentication, human curation and user welbeing aligned insentives. If we are to funciton as a digital society truth needs to be valued and a more acurate conversion of the analog world. We need to make new systems, talking about it on these systems won't do anything, I do realise the irony of me watching and commenting, I need to quit. From my limited knowledge the thing that has stoped people from doing so is network effects and the money it cost to run servers. Also people have come to expect things for free, but then again a paid fairer better alternative hasnt be given from the same oligopolys.

[@bloodyiceberg6827]

I think once the ai novelty fades, most people will get back to artists that do "original" work anyways, and promters will be forced by law to generate music using their real names if they want to sell it, and there will be a nieche for them on the market too like it was for producers who used samplers to sample 3rd party records in the 70's 80's 90's and today. Samplers created a bunch of new music genres like dnb, hip hop, waporwave etc... but people still play and record their music with their hands and stuff. These new technologies didn't stop anybody really, I think ai is just another music instrument and nothing more. Btw melody writtng softwave that analyzed music and wrote songs on its oen (wich is also ai) existed over 20 years ago but people seem to downplay it nowadays.

[@Audiostoke1]

@@bloodyiceberg6827 I agree, the issue is original and inovative work some of which may even use AI as a tool to enhance human expression will be drowned out by thoughtless automated AI sludge/rot.

[@ethandtheangryenglishguy8253]

Well, let’s all make new systems! That way everyone will be happy!

[@subspacesausage5918]

​@@bloodyiceberg6827 gen ai by its nature makes it impossible to track down sources. I dont think anyone is going to care if they have to credit an artist. I see two outcomes, etheir someone makes some kind of human authentication system that discourages low effort content or the internet is dead in 3-5 years. It is still extremely hard to make anything new with ai and what will be the point if everything you make is just gonna get stolen or scraped in a way that cannot be traced back?

[@builder_dahomey]

What if they use AI as users so AI will watch AI-generated ads on AI-generated content thus creating fake profits.

[@brianzulauf2974]

You gotta love how they are trying to make AI music a thing when guitarists still spend 30,000 dollars on Marshalls valve amps from the 70s

[@bloodyiceberg6827]

exactly! people tend to forget all the fuss around drum machines and samplers in late 70's who cares people still drum their ass off experiment with drum design and recording equipment to get unique sound

[@ano_nym]

@@bloodyiceberg6827 Or computer produced music for a later example.

[@penguinguy1814]

I recognized all the songs on “the grunge growlers” and at the same time I realized that like half of the songs on there arent grunge ☠️

[@rrlrt]

halfway through this video and I genuinely thought you would have 100k+ subscribers or be some big youtuber. your content is so much better and more informative than most on this platform already!

[@tophatring8445]

This is bad simply because some things should stay human!! AI can’t replicate the emotion and idk feeling of a real artist. This world is getting tiring. We just want genuineness again

[@BandoTaco]

idont understand why the first thing people did with AI is tell it to make Art... it has no lif eexperience it is a soulless program there is humans everywhere whomake beautiful art... greed... thats why..

[@ShroomRPG]

As a metalhead who often clicks on songs I find while browsing KZbin, I've noticed a huge uptick in what I'm pretty sure are AI generated songs and artists, some of them disclose that they are but some...do not

[@pizza-pi]

Yeah. It is unfortunate and disgusting.

[@jaconjordab]

As someone who writes songs, this makes me not want to even release music. I guess I can still play it for my friends, but AI is going to get out of control it kinda makes me feel hopeless. Imagine all you wanna do is write songs and be a songwriter, but then AI is just like nahhh I got this

[@Thepietro5000pp]

ai wont do local gigs. and they will push your career forward. don't give up. AI only exists in the digital space. i'm a visual artist myself and I just gave up on posting my work online, but I do still do small exhibitions. AI poisoned the internet, but not the real world. What would an ai prompter do with his music if he got hired to do a local gig? come up with a phone to play "his" work off of a jbl speaker? also, their music isn't copyrighted, so you can just take it for yourself...

[@m.o.n.d.e.g.r.e.e.n]

they said this about drum machines 40 years ago. still a lot of working drummers out there. keep going and do your own thing :)

[@149315Nico]

Don’t get discouraged, ai (yet) has no soul or real creational capabilities, it’s just fusing and diffusing already existing material. Also voice ais are lacking the emotional feel of real singers especially when it comes to expression in context with the lyrics Also people wanna see humans perform life, robots can’t deliver that yet Ai may get better but it won’t replace the human element completely

[@InventorZahran]

@@m.o.n.d.e.g.r.e.e.nI don't get why so many producers these days feel a need to quantize their drummers' playing. If you want that authentic sense of groove, record a human; if you want down-to-the-millisecond precision, just use a machine in the first place!

[@ano_nym]

Why should it stop you? Do you think people stop going to the gym because a forklift can lift more than them?

[@LynnHermione]

If a third party were using this to fleece spotify they'd stopped this in a week. this is made by spotify themselves

[@nathan.dunahoo]

Screw this, the issue I'm having right now is the WORST. My account is being used to bot streams. All the songs in my top 30 of all-time I have never heard before, my "on repeat" is filled with songs I've never heard before, and I'll log on and Spotify says the last played song is one I've again, never heard before. I've logged out of everything. Changed password to everything. Reset everything as much as possible. And it sucks.

[@leogardiner5203]

Beautiful cabin crew 🌹 Scarlett Johansson💋💋

[@StefanReich]

lol

[@SetsunaTheFandom]

Why don't these musics trend?

[@tzshchsjsjxijyo]

Good luck 🍀

[@guidedexplosiveprojectileg9943]

Amen🙏

[@JaredtheRabbit]

Amen

[@KushAggarwal]

bro is gonna blow up soon

[@dumbvillage9253]

Tf2 killbind

[@TheLegitAlpha]

It seems sludge pumping is not just a Facebook problem.

[@suoquainen]

At least at Bandcamp you're getting told that it's ai music, if it's ai music.

[@InfraredScale]

This has to be the worst time in human history to be an artist.

[@RandometteO]

the comments here seem off, it's like something is not right about them. some of them make no sense and some of them are weirdly long, almost AI-y. maybe by making this vid u attracted all the ai people, cuz like, the fuck is this.

[@shanehiggins4983]

He paid for streams. Some of the bands he is calling out are real.

[@ririnikite]

as someone who does listen to music on spotify a lot, i don't really see these ai artists on my spotify discover thingy as i mainly listen to vocaloid and jpop

[@Soundwaiv]

I'm an artist myself. This is awful...

[@Okurka.]

It's great, now you can use AI to create a song in seconds instead of spending weeks trying to write a song.

[@hotpocketsat2am]

@@Okurka. imagine fucking telling an artist that being able to make slop with no humanity in it with no effort is a good thing. get a life.

[@chillyoil528]

@@Okurka. true but this really doesent benefit actual artists they arent empowered at all by this isnt the process of creation what makes creating rewarding to begin with? its one thing to have a tool that'll assist your work but its another thing entirely to have one that replaces the process entirely and is furthermore based on stolen data taken from artists without compensating them in the slightest

[@Okurka.]

@@chillyoil528 Actual artists aren't in it for the money.

[@fIeshwater]

​@@Okurka. Actual artists also need sustenance to live

[@MikuHatsune159]

it's either this or the newest release is listed under an established artist's name, but the music is some garbage that wasn't created by them.

[@cobaltong]

I'm just happy it hasn't done that with any of my favorite artists (especially dead artists like DOOM since it honestly would disrespect his legacy)

[@ririnikite]

i think this might've happened to some of the pjsk units and people thought that their spotify got hacked

[@selenite3890]

that’s always happened

[@IABITVpresents]

@@MikuHatsune159 some artists don't really care to split artist pages properly to release stuff from, so there are some basic names/mononyms having songs from multiple artists of the same name. It happens

[@MikuHatsune159]

@@IABITVpresents true, I can see that happening. Though I'm more specifically talking about pages with a certain style of music, you can really tell that it was more likely someone using their name to get a few streams.

[@RaphaPortoRP]

I opened your spreadsheet on my browser to read and... Jesus Christ! That's insane. They even had the audacity to copy Tracy Chapman! By the way, nice job both with the video and research.

[@Matthew_Fog]

158 subs? This is your first video?? Holy moly! Congratulations!

[@RadeonVega64]

this is why I use SoundCloud

[@tfk_001]

I noticed this several months ago. I listen pretty exclusively to black metal and all of a sudden spotify recommended 10 or so bands which sounded very legit but whos album covers were generic pop album covers which was very out of place. Had they actually gone through the effort to harvest album covers I'd've been fooled

[@foxarocka]

Dude this is your first youtube video!? This was so high quality that I thought you were like a long time youtuber Thank you for spreading the word about this too! AI “art” is stealing the jobs of hundreds of independent musicians and artists and it seems like nobody is talking about it

[@NoSaysJo]

hush down kid

[@renaiya1666]

Fantastic video quality and your coverage of the topic was good. I noticed a surge of blatantly AI generated songs on my KZbin homepage with single digit views under nonsense account names and AI generated thumbnails around a week back I'd say. Definitely goes beyond just these ones that you talked about

[@jessiewhite7783]

Don’t think about spotify as a whole company, it is but it’s made up of individual employees. Spotify as a whole wouldnt be making much money from those streams, but that’s a huge yearly bonus for an individual who set it all up and is also making sure it keeps going. Would be a lot easier for an insider to do all of this, rather than a rogue entity.

[@TrizziEhgan]

I hope Spotify doesn't suggest me these kind of fake artists when listening to auto-generated playlists...

[@ThisIsAnnie2002]

You look AI generated..... It's not an insult, you really do. It's uncanny.... 😮😮😮 Good video tho

[@Vytelux]

I HATE AI

[@suafus]

Scariest part is this video is AI ☠️ But for anyone who created this algorithm, a good job showing how stupid people are

[@mikehunt5926]

i am scrubbing through comments praying someone else noticed, it’s the only video on the channel and obviously the guy is AI or at least crazy AI enhanced

[@suafus]

@@mikehunt5926 THANK GOD! So there are still normal people, now we just wait for them to delete our comments...🙂🔫

[@ixxxxxxx]

im pretty sure that's just a crappy webcam can you like settle down

[@mikehunt5926]

@@ixxxxxxx average jet fuel and ginger ales fan

[@ixxxxxxx]

@@mikehunt5926 me? i'm here cause i heard a terry and the dustriders song in a new vegas playlist and instantly knew something was DEEPLY wrong with it and i cannot explain how much it peeves me, the fact they hide behind anonymity while churning that stuff out says all it needs to say, i'm pretty sure we're on the same side here bro

[@bloodyiceberg6827]

I always thought that there will be more ai generated music with original lyrics rather than just ai covers but nah... people are just want to put as little efford as posible and get their plays

[@yaboymintz]

From what I understand, Spotify and a few other major streaming platforms have a fairly strict policy against listen farming playlists, stream botting, etc. This has led to some independent artist of falsely being accused of farming their listens in the last few years. Major distributors i.e. Distrokid, CD Baby, etc. all have rules against using AI generated music, steam botting, etc. In addition, you usually need to get a cover license to upload a cover of another artists song. So it isn't adding up to me how this has been happening on a large scale like this and neither Spotify nor the distributors noticing for months. Especially as someone who has had friends who got hit with false takedowns because one of those parties suspected steam botting. This tells me they are actively sending takedowns, but somehow they missed multiple AI artists in pretty massive "legit" playlists. That is fishy. I'm a small independent musician who uses a distributor to release my music to the big boys. I don't really expect a financial return on my music, but really that's not the point for me. I have a career that keeps me off the streets so music is a passion project for me. The payout for streaming services is an absolute joke, but unfortunately if you want to reach a wide audience your music has to be available on the major platforms to have a fighting chance at getting people to listen to your music. That all being said, if you actually want to directly support an artist you like, I recommend checking to see if they have a bandcamp page or any other way to buy their music directly. Whether that be digitally or physically, or merch if they offer it. If they play live shows, then going to one of their shows is another good way to support them. Unfortunately the way the current system is, streaming someone's music doesn't really give the creator much.

[@m.o.n.d.e.g.r.e.e.n]

please try to capture the music for the next video cuz im just genuinely interested what it sounds like

[@newn3on845]

Yo man this is a great video and deserves more recognition! I know you probably don’t want advice but I’d recommend adding a bit of background music to jazz up the video a bit. Keep up the good work!!

[@newn3on845]

Editing is top notch, you have a solid microphone and you’re great at explaining stuff. I can see you going far bro

[@AlexOmiotek]

Agreed but the reading off the screen is too obvious, he needs to work on that aspect. There's techniques for using teleprompters in how you set up the camera and how far from both the camera and screen you are.

[@DaColinata]

@@newn3on845 I thought about adding music but didn’t know if it would take away from the serious tone. Next time I’ll make sure to add that!

[@DaColinata]

@@AlexOmiotek You’re so right! This was my biggest gripe with the video but wanted to release the video ASAP. I appreciate the advice and the next video will hopefully be 100x better!

[@wietzejohanneskrikke1910]

I disagree.

[@MaterLacrymarum]

AI artists increase profit for Spotify. Spotify have someone make the songs, and the promote the hell out of them. Then, Spotify pays itself the money from these bands clicks.

[@hakunamakatie_]

Awesome video! This was so interesting! I was not expecting this to be your first video! Keep up the good work man!

[@TeeCee-qq4ev]

What those guys did was illegal. Could cost them a bundle if one of the Artists or label decided to sue because you can even go to prison if you deliberately infringe. But why scourge A.I. with this? This was just monetizing covers without permission. The last thing you need A.I. for is to do is a cover song. Accept it or not, if you know what you want and have arrangement and producing skills and vision, A.I. creates, not just copy.

[@karlhendrikse]

Why illegal? Nobody said the songs are covers. They are presumably completely unrelated songs that just use the same names.

[@PlanetCat]

Bro I am in shock you only have 30 subs. Keep it going!

[@chokladkanin]

i've been suspecting this aswell for some time now. I'm a music collector and like to browse places like spotify to find smaller artists but for some time now spotify has been pushing artists like these with fake or copied songs and it makes the process really frustrating.

[@StockbridgeBand]

It costs money to do this so at least there is a cap on how many of these fakers can be here

[@monikaradzaj7407]

Here's a sub! I'm glad more people are talking about this. AI music is not okay and it's hurting real artists.

[@mikehunt5926]

is the joke that this video is AI generated? i’m so confused

[@prisonersofrockandroll]

Thanks for making this video. We were talking about this issue in our latest episode.

[@CountCocofang]

Whenever something gets massively commercialized, it's a surefire way to suck any soul, authenticity and grassroots development out of it. Which is why I never committed to Spotify. I also like to actually own my music. Have it as data I can copy and listen to whenever I want. And not have it go away when my internet goes out or when Spotify decides to change their ToS or close an account. Ownership is very important.

[@Darewrecks415]

This is why i cut down my internet intake and have always listened to groups i hear by going to concerts or from friends telling me to check them out. Fuck AI in art.

[@kyotocat3275]

There’s that one Ai dude w only dog covers. Obnoxioussssss

[@sk8razer]

This video was *great*! I was very surprised to hear that this is your first ever video. You were clearly able to jump over some of the very common growing pains with audio quality, dialogue, effects, editing, etc that most brand new channels go through. I hope that you'll consider sticking with the low-key, straight forward vibe that really centers you and what you're discussing. A lot of people who like these types of videos prefer a more straightforward, toned down format like this. Unfortunately, as channels grow they often start investing more in flashy "engagement" that drowns them and their dialogue out. I doubt that you really need a lot of stock music, sound effects, or images. People who like this type of video tend to listen while doing other tasks rather than actually _watching_ the video. A lot of the "be successful on KZbin" tips are centered around the idea of cultivating an audience that's primarily children and young teens. Which is, admittedly, a great way to gain a lot of subscribers, views, and ad revenue. But those methods rarely translate well when your focus is on making videos for an adult/older teen audience that's primarily looking for something educational or informative to watch. You definitely do not need to transition to highly stimulating videos with click bait titles and equally stimulating and click baity thumbnails in order to do well. Your personality and well written, seemingly rehersed scripts should be more than enough for you to gain a decently sized audience over a steady pace. Look how great you're already doing with subscribers, views, and likes only 11 days after uploading your first ever video! You also most likely will not need to try to put yourself on a stressful quantity over quality regular upload schedule to be successful. I honestly don't think that _any_ demographic really invests all that much effort into purposefully coming to KZbin to watch that "come back for a brand new video every Thursday!" Of course, if your primary goal is to have a massive audience with tons of views and you _want_ to follow the usual tips or otherwise experiment with different types of videos, that's totally okay too! It's your channel so you, of course, make the type of videos that you enjoy making! And, remember, it's always encouraged to take breaks from creating whenever you're feeling burnt out or when you have a lot of other stuff going on in life. Evolving your style whenever _you_ feel like doing so is also a great strategy for not getting burnt out. A lot of creators feel a sense of obligation to their viewers to stick with a consistent style and genre that feels monotonous and draining for them. But, in most cases, most of your audience will happily keep enjoying your videos regardless. Any comments complaining about changes are usually just a small minority of viewers (many of whom are only being snarky in the moment because they're just in a bad mood 😂).

[@MimiksYou]

this was a big thing a month ago with fake artists and ai jazz i'm pretty sure theory 1 is correct, playlists are curated by spotify and a bunch of them are fully ai generated

[@livvy4333]

Remember yall, support your local REAL music scene :p

[@RunesHytte]

Soon "human music" will be a niche Genre in a World where all Art is com-generated. Just like in Orwell's book

[@EisensteinPrime]

The simplest explanation is Spotify getting greedy since they're already trying to pay real artists less money.

[@lalalovesmusic3]

In doing just a quick search from the info on the spreadsheet, it *definitely* seems like there's some big connected bot network behind it all. So many of these artists are featured on the same or very similarly styled "GREATEST HITS OF ___ GENRE" playlists, and their supposed monthly streams come from pretty much the same top cities like Jakarta, Santiago, and Quezon City (various cities in Australia as well). Even weirder is that they seems to have the same "Fans also like" suggested artists. The one "Ana Shine" seems to be a real person- plenty of Instagram and TikTok content of herself, but her stuff gets nearly no engagement despite having a large number of followers. And her music? Yikes. It's almost like she's a real person but the instrumentals and production seem quite AI like to me? I don't know. But it's strange to me that a real person who clearly had bot followers and plays is somehow suggested with all of these AI bands, and that most if not all end up on the same playlists and stream from the same cities. There's gotta be something that ties that all together haha

[@ixxxxxxx]

the evidence shows it's nearly undoubtedly from scripts people are running. thousands of fake songs a day basically, just to rake in some pennies. it's bleak

[@strangepigeoncoos]

Awesome first video! Thanks for the information. I hope you can figure out what's going on and share it with us.

[@sk8razer]

I also really loved that you went above and beyond to encourage viewers to go check out the source materials that you used to research this video with special emphasis on the other people who worked really hard to create videos and write articles on this subject. It's always really great to see creators genuinely promoting each other and giving a sense of community over competition. A lot of people do really enjoy watching videos on the same topic from different creators, because each creator usually brings a unique perspective to the topic. So there definitely _is_ room for multiple people to cover the same topic. Your overall personality seems very kind and genuine, which is always great to see!

[@dontusethesamenicknameonthenet]

woah didnt know that theres ai music on spotify... for someone who listening to music on yt and sometimes downloads it this vid was very good at explaining what why and who

[@aqua_noodle]

I have been using AI to satisfy my weird taste in music but I wanna share my thoughts. I think you are overlooking another problem. AI is not only deceiving people by reusing song titles, but now AI songs compete with the artists and the songs the models themselves are trained on. Double theft. They take artists songs on Spotify, train the model on them and then outcompete them. There are no laws in this game so if you also don't have morals, it is game over. Soon you will see models trained on AI content, incestuous AI programs reaffirming their underlying biases, getting worse with each generation. I hope at that point the value of actual human data increases to put pressure on legislation but it will remain a desolate soulless place for a long time. Expect more of this. Artists these days are in a really tough sport, on one hand having to use all these new tools to not get left behind but on the otehr also having to push for more legislationa nd rules on an interntional scale.

[@zeroplustwo]

i can't believe this was your first youtube video!!! your commentary was spot on, and the editing was great. here's a like, sub and comment.

[@felinoidrose]

i came across one of these once. i think it was in my discover weekly. this random ai "band" had somehow connected their reupload of a song to the real version. same amount of listens and all. ngl it creeped me out because it was late but its just weird to me. how is that possible

[@deadhorseak]

LOL i remember there was a playlist called like "baby bats" that yaknow was full of entry level goth music which was great for when i was a baby bat except there was also a bunch of unrelated cover bands in it such as the grunge growlers. didn't know they were like ai-generated.

[@billbombshiggy9254]

Also they're still on KZbin, those "artists"

[@mxganyu369]

2:11 ...thats not even how you spell Duluth.

[@lessthanbonnie5813]

Great video! Hope it gets more recognition, along with the topic at hand as well. It's getting significantly harder to crack down on AI content like that and we can only hope it gets better so genuine creators don't have to compete with people who sit there and type prompts. As a composer and artist it truly is a bad time to try to get something out there as AI evolves but that alone isn't enough to stop me or any other indie creators. Good on you for putting the effort into this video instead of having an AI write for you lmao, excited for the future of your channel.

[@justray8841]

Awesome video! I had no idea that this was your first video until I looked at your channel. Great job 👏🏾

[@xviolaa]

I ran into a circle of (possibly) AI artists that all lead back to a crypto mining youtube channel, shit was weird. Can’t remember all of their names but I remember Susanne Davis and Harper Minta being a part of it. Bizarre

[@ixxxxxxx]

crypto mining is really in the same vain. they are using scripts to generate thousands of songs across hundreds of spotify accounts to take advantage of the payouts lol

[@ADJLfanatic52]

Spotify had (read: USED TO HAVE) this weird AI voice that was on playlists for a short amount of time. I remember anytime I had a playlist on and I paused a song, then went to play it again, it would say "continuing xxxxx." Everybody, and I mean everybody, was annoyed by it and within less than a week it suddenly disappeared. I really don't know what they were thinking. I'm already on the playlist, and I had to stop my phone to pick up a call, I don't need to remember the playlist that I'm on. I just want my music.

[@manu3281]

I have recently heard about this and as a Spotify subscriber this has me concerned. Thank you for your exposure and good work ✌🏻

[@blunderingfool]

I'm reminded of "Mona Lisa" from Phantom Crash.

[@builder_dahomey]

Good thing many of the musicians I hear aren't in the spreadsheet. AI can't mimic uncommon time signatures.

[@lynnk.7587]

You are well aware that these type of fake bands existed way before GenAI? This is nothing new.

[@acidpurewarrior]

AI makes it easier and easier to do though to be fair

[@MrPillowStudios]

Honestly, at the end of the day AI generated content should have never been invented.

[@MetalFromTheSingulariry]

A couple questions, how are they getting covers on Spotify or Apple Music without getting them cleared first? I was under the impression that was kind of a necessary step. And if they are getting the covers cleared and are working independently of Spotify, why would they take them down when someone discovers they aren't real bands?

[@vvitch-mist20]

I can see AI being used to create a concept of a song, or used as it's own base for a remix, but to not transform anything about what the AI made is so lazy. It's like when "game devs" create asset flips of free programs to help beginner game devs and put them out on Steam. Those 3D models and textures are for new game devs to learn the basics before they graduate to developing models of their own.

[@Journey_to_who_knows]

Then is it really that different than “sampling” especially these rappers that just take 90% of a r&b song and yak over it

[@vvitch-mist20]

@@Journey_to_who_knows Rappers using R&B songs within their rap song is the definition of transformative. Just because you personally dislike it doesn't change that.

[@Journey_to_who_knows]

@@vvitch-mist20 then so is recolouring a free asset or using ai creation or having someone else produce for you, your point is doesn’t add up, Kanye took a Smokey Robinson track and looped the chorus for 5 minutes on end with absolutely no modification other than pitch shifting to make “devil in a dress”. That definitely wouldn’t get past content Id.

[@vvitch-mist20]

@@Journey_to_who_knows Why do I get the feeling you are being this way on purpose?

[@andycivil]

You should read "Chokepoint Capitalism" by Cory Doctorow. Spotify is "featured"... and not in a good way.

[@bernardstein1651]

really interesting good job, cant believe I'm learning this from such a small creator first. keep it up

[@vrf3]

Yeah it is possibly a third party, but I would not be shocked if it was Spotify as well. The reason I believe more of the third party theory is because if you think about it.. KZbin has watchmojo, facts verse, watch culture, add a bunch of others not affiliated with KZbin but will make mass-produce content because I know someone will click it. The receiving a scandal involving a KZbinr a long time ago with a channel called PopBlast ranted on a KZbin and no one had heard of that channel which had over 2000 followers (I think. I can't remember). So back then we were dealing with bots. Something like this happening on Spotify is really not shocking.

[@zerastarchild2849]

Thank you for this. I am a DIY artist. It seems like you are an artist you have to be on Spotify. But the longer I am on it the more I am seeing videos like this that make the whole platform seem sketchy. I wonder how many people are using bots to "listen" to their music on this platform. AI is not the only thing that's fake in today's music world.

[@ab8817]

first youtube video. 11k views. i smell something fishy.... looks like another industry plant. just announce your tour already.