r/Music • u/ebradio • Jul 21 '25

music Spotify Publishes AI-Generated Songs From Dead Artists Without Permission

https://www.404media.co/spotify-publishes-ai-generated-songs-from-dead-artists-without-permission/
3.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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389

u/Dead-O_Comics Jul 21 '25

I'm about halfway through my Discover Weekly for this week, so far 3 songs are AI generated.

153

u/noodlyarms Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25

Is there any good give-it-away clues for this when they randomly pop up in the que? 

143

u/Hvarfa-Bragi Jul 21 '25

Spend a little time on suno.com , you'll start to get the lyrical style and the shitty compression on the voices.

63

u/Lizzo13 Jul 21 '25

Sometimes if you look at the credits, it also lists suno as a producer or writer. I've seen an AI artist all over - Spotify, Apple/iTunes, and YouTube - and tried to report it with no luck. They were releasing hundreds of albums a year and probably making money off it. So ridiculous.

15

u/IAteAGuitar Jul 22 '25

All the while real artists struggle to make a living or stop entirely. It's beyond ridiculous, it's infuriating.

3

u/xxKudori Jul 22 '25

As someone who's been learning about production and singing for years, I'm really worried

105

u/Dead-O_Comics Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25

The songs are pretty formless, and a lot of them don't end, they just stop dead, with a slight echo.

Here's two examples - Notice that the single artwork is a generic template and both exactly a minute thirty long:

https://open.spotify.com/track/0p1A3VVzFlLofoTNfRhw78?si=c7vgPZs4TGSOFppi9k9zOA

https://open.spotify.com/track/3CGLWDqekGf8aLlFYYOdj4?si=gnCkcvnASe--6nB7BeIrkA

I have more examples but honestly, I don't want to give them the listen counts.

36

u/noodlyarms Jul 21 '25

Interesting, thanks. Guess I haven't seemingly come across any of those yet, but I listen to somewhat niche, lyrical heavy genres. That stuff sounds like generic hotel lobby music, could see it slipping in if you're listening to chill/lo-fi stuff though.

32

u/Dead-O_Comics Jul 21 '25

Well for context I've been listening to a lot of instrumental stuff: Mogwai, Boards of Canada, DJ Shadow, Max Cooper, Nathan Fake... so these suggestions feel way off for my tastes.

2

u/theeTangenT Jul 23 '25

Goated Nathan Fake

2

u/fluxien Jul 22 '25

Your tastes are quite good, imho.

1

u/Dead-O_Comics Jul 22 '25

Haha thanks. I thought that saying I had AI music in my Discover Weekly might have been a self report

1

u/GingerIsTheBestSpice Jul 22 '25

I use lo fi to fall asleep. It's all lo fi girl, so hopefully it's all real artists still. I'll see the same names pop up but there's no lyrics or distinctive sound that would let me know it wasn't, it's just against my humanity to reward ai music.

22

u/Ghost51 Concertgoer Jul 21 '25

I'm not opening those links lest my Spotify mark it as me taking an interest in them lol.

10

u/3384619716 Jul 22 '25

Usually the vocals sound like old 64kbps mp3s or wax cylinders played in a fish tank.

All of the album covers and photos are AI.

Searching for the artist(s) and finding only single releases starting 2023 and zero live video or tour dates.

1

u/chefsinblack Jul 22 '25

When it's a radical departure from the artist's sound, if it's a musician you know really well. Or if a new release comes out of the blue.

Over the past few months I've seen it happen with Jewel, Poe and Til Tuesday. All artists with not-very-recent bodies of work (except for Jewel) and all sounding nothing like themselves.

1

u/Occasional_Otamatone 17d ago

A bit late, but recently I've been seeing some AI generated songs with clearly AI generated covers as well. if the cover to a newly released song looks completely different to the rest of the band's covers, chances are it's AI

121

u/MD_FunkoMa Jul 21 '25

This is awful. I hate that Spotify and Netflix are all cool with AI being a top priority for their futures.

53

u/TFFPrisoner Jul 21 '25

Velvet Sundown and several other "artists" with similar copyright lines are quite prevalent in my Release Radar. I've blocked Velvet Sundown and those other tracks are not playable for me but still take up space in that playlist 🙄

-26

u/MD_FunkoMa Jul 21 '25

That band got us hooked, link, and sinker.

40

u/Ghost51 Concertgoer Jul 21 '25

Shareholder value must go up every quarter or the world will explode

28

u/MetroidHyperBeam Jul 22 '25

Shareholder value must go up every quarter and the world will explode

That's my best offer

4

u/IRLconsequences Jul 22 '25

Double true still satisfies an "or" statement.

2

u/ladiesngentlemenplz Jul 22 '25

...unless it's an exclusive "or."

2

u/ceae Jul 28 '25

Feels like every tech company has a C-suite obsessed with AI and no matter what the people doing the work tell them, no matter what the audience says, they keep going all-in on it. Not great for us meatbags.

16

u/Stoned_Bamf Jul 21 '25

I get 2 to 5 AI songs in my release radar every week.

40

u/jessepence Jul 21 '25

Cancel your service. Sail the seas. They have lost the privilege of our patronage.

44

u/TheSpiritOfFunk Jul 22 '25

Or buy a CD from your favorite artist

8

u/IRLconsequences Jul 22 '25

If I could upvote this comment more than once, I would.

2

u/Jetztinberlin Jul 22 '25

Actually give money to an artist for their work? Are you mad?!?#!1

(Thank you, seriously)

-3

u/Emitime Jul 22 '25

CD is just data; buy a download. Cheaper and a lot less plastic.

1

u/TheSpiritOfFunk Jul 22 '25

There are not many Flac downloads

2

u/Emitime Jul 22 '25

Yeah, just what people getting away from Spotify are after.

1

u/Global_School4845 Jul 23 '25

Don't Bandcamp provide FLACs?

1

u/Shacken-Wan Jul 22 '25

Do you have any alternatives that I can use on iOS with my own music ?

1

u/ahaaracer Jul 22 '25

the Default Music App and use any song or mp3 you if you use iTunes to load it.

23

u/5DollarWatch Jul 21 '25

How can you tell when it's AI generated and when it's just.. mid?

40

u/Dead-O_Comics Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25

I've replied to someone else with examples, but the artwork is a simple template, the songs are formless and they have no ending..

Have a listen if you are so inclined. Make sure to block the 'artist' afterwards.

2

u/affore Jul 21 '25

How did they make to Disover Weekly?

28

u/BillsInATL Jul 22 '25

Spotify is pushing AI music on its listeners so they dont have to pay real, living artists the royalties.

22

u/cmackchase Jul 22 '25

Spotify put them there.

15

u/evil__gnome Jul 21 '25

If I'm not sure, I Google the artist and see first if they have social media/a website and if they do, if those feel authentic. I primarily listen to metal so I'm not sure if this is true for other genres, but a big tell for me is absolutely zero talk of upcoming shows or photos from recent shows. Metal bands are always doing live shows, even if they're just playing to the same 15 people in the same dive bar - if it's not a one man band deal (and they usually make it clear if that's the case), it is super suspicious that you're releasing music and not even doing a hometown release party.

1

u/WgXcQ Jul 22 '25

It's like pre-chewed gum instead of just a gum flavour you find meh.

5

u/PM_ME_YOUR_SPUDS Jul 22 '25

This has gotta be person-to-person, I recognize fucking every name even for the songs I don't know. I get like Michael Jackson and AC/DC, what are you listening that you get AI songs?

8

u/jotaechalo Jul 22 '25

Do you listen to new artists?

4

u/h3rpad3rp Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

One of my main uses for spotify is to find new music so I listen to a lot of different genres, and a lot of artists that I've never heard before. Many of the artists aren't super popular or well known.

It becomes a lot easier to slip fake AI crap in if you aren't listening to classic rock songs that have been around for 50 years which you've heard 1000 times or the literal king of pop. (nothing against anything you listen to)

1

u/helloviolaine Jul 22 '25

Apparently Spotify has been pushing AI artists on the Discover Weekly playlist, which is specifically for discovering new artists you haven't listened to yet.

1

u/PM_ME_YOUR_SPUDS Jul 22 '25

I was already referring to my Discover Weekly playlist. They're songs I probably haven't listened to my account. It has old songs, new ones from the last few months, artists I've listened to plenty, artists I've never listened to, everything in between. Not a single one is AI. That's my point, its dependent on music taste.

I'm not saying other people don't get this or that it isn't an issue, its widely reported, but if your Discover playlist is all jazz and classic rock and 90's rock and alt rock and niche as fuck J-rock and J-pop this doesn't seem to be a problem as it is for people who listen to trance or EDM or some such. It's person-to-person.

5

u/jingowatt Jul 21 '25

Then why would you fucking continue with Spotify?

35

u/Dead-O_Comics Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25

  1. This is something I've been personally conscious of for only 2 weeks.

  2. This isn't an issue exclusive to Spotify. AI slop is spreading everywhere.

  3. I will eventually switch to another service if they can guarantee no AI slop and I can find a way of transferring 8 years' worth of saved songs to another service.

  4. I have no intention of pirating music. I have a physical media collection but mostly listen to music on the move.

Deezer has been advertising that they will feature Ai music but label it appropriately. I don't think this will be foolproof as I'm a designer and use stock sites that promise to let you know of AI generated assets but they still slip through the cracks regardless.

8

u/x_lincoln_x Jul 22 '25

I ripped all my CDs to ogg vorbis and copied them to my phone.

2

u/it_snow_problem Jul 22 '25

Qobuz has higher hurdles for getting things listed on their library so I hope it's a bigger hurdle for slop, pays artists the most, and I haven't seen any ai tracks yet.

I also buy a lot of music now, mostly vinyl records, but qobuz has a digital music store if you're so inclined.

1

u/offoutover Spotify Jul 22 '25

I used Soundiiz to transfer my libraries to another service. Cost a few bucks but it was quick and painless.

1

u/h3rpad3rp Jul 22 '25

I used to use discovery weekly every week. I don't even bother anymore. It doesn't even seem remotely related to my tastes, unless it is playing songs that I know I have played on spotify before.