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"There's not a shred of evidence on the internet that this band has ever existed": This apparently AI-generated artist is racking up hundreds of thousands of Spotify streams

The Velvet Sundown has no online footprint, a suspiciously artificial artist image and a ChatGPT-generated biography - but somehow has almost 350,000 monthly listeners

Smuggled into popular playlists and hidden in plain sight among authentic, well-known tracks, AI-generated artists with fake photos, ChatGPT-generated biographies and no genuine fans to speak of are picking up hundreds of thousands of streams. The band's line-up ostensibly features "mellotron sorcerer" Gabe Farrow, "free-spirited percussionist" Orion “Rio” Del Mar, "synth alchemist" Milo Rains and guitarist Lennie West, four musicians that turn up a grand total of zero appearances in Google search results between them. The answer to both of these questions remains a mystery, but the band's growing popularity confirms that of the thousands of AI-generated tracks uploaded to streaming services each day, many are gaining a foothold - and with it, taking money out of the pockets of authentic artists making real music.

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