The Velvet Sundown, an indie rock band that has been gaining popularity, was revealed to be an artificial intelligence project. Science Alert reported this with reference to the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Immediately after The Velvet Sundown appeared online, disputes arose about the band's authenticity. The band's photos resembled AI-generated drawings, and their compositions contained artifacts typical of algorithm-generated music.
Despite the suggestions of artificial origins, some commentators believed that the band was using the stylization of neural network–generated content to promote their work online. The band denied the accusations on social media, claiming that they had nothing to do with any generative models.
The Velvet Sundown's album "Floating On Echoes", released in June 2025, quickly gained popularity on streaming services. For instance, the single "Dust on the Wind" received 1.1 million listens on Spotify in under a month and topped numerous charts on the platform. The rest of the band's songs have also racked up hundreds of thousands of listens.
After a month of heated discussions, The Velvet Sundown updated the band's information on their Spotify page, admitting to their artificial origin. They noted that the band's name references Lou Reed's The Velvet Underground and that The Velvet Sundown is "an ongoing creative provocation."
According to the band's profile, all characters, stories, music, voices, and lyrics are original works created using artificial intelligence and other creative tools. It is not specified which tools are being referred to.
The Agence France-Presse news agency asked Spotify to comment on the situation surrounding The Velvet Sundown. Journalists tried to clarify whether the platform knew about the collective's artificial origin and asked what would happen to the income from listening. In response to the query, Spotify spokeswoman Geraldine Igu said the platform does not prioritize music created with AI tools nor benefit financially from it. Igu also noted that all tracks are created, owned, and uploaded to Spotify's catalog by licensed third parties.
After becoming familiar with the band's work, several specialized publications noticed that music generated by algorithms sounds better than many real artists' compositions. We're not talking about famous musicians, but rather novice artists trying to connect with listeners. At the same time, the high quality of the music has raised concerns among journalists who have noticed that The Velvet Sundown has brought us closer to a time when streaming music catalogs will consist more of generated music than "live" music.
Some music organizations share this concern. For example, in December 2024, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), representing the interests of over 5 million authors worldwide, announced the dangers of AI-generated music. The organization's representatives noted that, against the backdrop of such content, aspiring composers may lose access to listeners entirely. At best, this will force them to find alternative ways to reach an audience. At worst, it may force them to stop practicing music altogether.
According to forecasts, musicians' income may decrease by more than 20% in the next few years due to the growing market for AI-generated music. This trend is indirectly confirmed by music platform statistics. For example, Deezer reported in April 2025 that it received over 20,000 songs completely created with artificial intelligence daily. This represented 18% of all content uploaded to the platform; in January 2025, this figure was only 10%.
Deezer immediately labeled The Velvet Sundown's first songs as "content created by artificial intelligence" after they were uploaded to the service's catalog. According to representatives of the site, the platform's algorithms automatically identify music created with the help of AI models Suno and Udio, preventing any misunderstanding on the part of listeners.
