Does the most recent monitor by your favorite singer sound barely off? You could also be proper. Fraudulent AI-generated tracks are more and more showing in artists’ personal profiles on streaming platforms, offered as their authentic work.
British people musician Emily Portman received a shock in July when she obtained a message from a fan congratulating her on her new album — although she hadn’t launched one since 2022.
That’s when she found “Orca” on quite a few streaming platforms together with Spotify and Apple Music.
The titles of the songs resembled one thing she might need created herself, however “very quickly I recognised it was AI-produced music”, she stated.
According to the unbiased artist, the AI behind “Orca” was “trained” on her earlier albums, mimicking her folk-inspired instrumentation and lyrics.
“I just felt really uncomfortable and disturbed that people could be going to my profile … and then think ‘wow, what’s this?’,” she stated.
Portman stated individuals have been fooled regardless of the “pristine perfection” of the vocals and “vacuous lyrics”.
The musician could not determine the perpetrators of the fraud, however believes she is aware of how they function.
Scammers claiming to be artists method distribution firms, which then add the music on-line with none identification checks, she stated.
On the opposite aspect of the world, Australian musician Paul Bender additionally found from early this yr that 4 “bizarrely bad” AI-generated songs had been added to the profiles of his band, The Sweet Enoughs.
He stated the streaming trade hadn’t saved tempo with safety measures akin to two-factor authentication now broadly utilized in different sectors.
“You just say: ‘Yes that’s me’ … and upload a song to whoever’s profile,” he stated. “It’s the easiest scam in the world.”
After an Instagram dialogue, Bender, who can be the bassist for the Grammy-nominated band Hiatus Kaiyote, obtained a whole bunch of messages from artists and music followers.
He compiled an inventory of quite a few suspect albums, notably within the catalogues of deceased artists, such because the experimental Scottish musician Sophie, who died in 2021.
Around 24,000 individuals signed a petition Bender launched on change.org, together with rapper and singer-songwriter Anderson .Paak and singer Willow Smith, urging platforms to step up safety.
Virtually undetectable
AI-powered music mills akin to Suno and Udio have develop into more and more refined.
Almost all listeners at the moment are unable to tell apart AI-generated tracks from the actual factor, based on an Ipsos examine for the French platform Deezer in November.
This has pushed success for bands solely created by AI, akin to The Velvet Sundown, which has garnered a million subscribers on Spotify, but in addition led to an increase in fraudulent exercise.
“The reason that music was uploaded under her (Portman’s) name was essentially to make sure that they could gain royalties from (it),” stated Dougie Brown of the trade consultant UK Music.
Revenues on the platforms are usually low, however add up due to bots that multiply listening streams tenfold, he stated.
Portman and Bender, who haven’t taken authorized motion, requested the assorted platforms to take away the offending tracks — a course of that took between 24 hours and eight weeks.
Some international locations and states have laws to guard artists towards imitation, notably in California.
In others, together with the United Kingdom, restricted copyright leaves artists susceptible, stated Philip Morris of the Musicians’ Union.
He stated Portman’s case confirmed how AI-generated music was now so refined it may really be used “to impersonate the original work of a real artist”.
Accused of a scarcity of transparency, Spotify not too long ago introduced measures to make the platform extra dependable and clear.
Like its competitor Apple Music, it says it’s working upstream with distributors to higher detect fraud.
“Across the music industry, AI is accelerating existing problems like spam, fraud, and deceptive content,” it stated.
Despite her issues about potential UK laws that artists say will injury their pursuits, and fraudsters making a mockery of the “beauty of the creative process”, Portman is engaged on a brand new album.
“The album that I’m making, it’s costing a lot of money … but for me it’s all about those human connections, creativity and teaming up with other amazing creatives,” she stated.
© 2025 AFP