AI Rock Band Shocks Spotify With Over 1 Million Listeners

The Velvet Sundown seemed to appear out of nowhere. Now, they have over 1.2 million monthly Spotify listeners. But there’s a twist, the band isn’t real.

The group went viral last month after releasing two full albums in quick succession: Floating on Echoes and Dust and Silence.
A third album, Paper Sun Rebellion, is set to drop in just a few days.

No Human Band Members

Despite their growing popularity, The Velvet Sundown has no real members.
All the music, vocals, and visuals are created with artificial intelligence (AI).

The band confirmed this in a statement on July 5.
Posted on Facebook, it read:

“The Velvet Sundown is a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence.”

They called the project “an artistic provocation” that explores the future of music in the age of AI.
The band described itself as “not quite human, not quite machine.”

Photos of the “ Velvet Sundown’s band members” raised suspicion early on. They looked smooth and airbrushed, typical of AI-generated images.
There was no background information on who they were.

Fans and Artists React

Now, the truth is out, and reactions are mixed.

UK listener Jamie Jones told The Washington Post:

“If Spotify is putting five songs from the same AI band into playlists, you’re taking food out of people’s mouths. That’s pretty wrong.”

But others praised the music.
One person tweeted:

“As much as I wanted to hate that AI band ‘The Velvet Sundown’ I honestly think it’s friggin good.”

For now, The Velvet Sundown remains live on the platform, blurring the line between man and machine.

Here’s a breakdown of how the Velvet Sundown band fooled millions of listeners:

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