Now Hardcore Bands Are Getting Bombarded by Spotify’s AI Doppelgängers
Last week, news broke that a number of metalcore bands on Spotify — many of whom you’ve likely heard of — were getting targeted by people using A.I. generated music to capitalize on those bands’ popularity. It was a gross feeling story that saw artists losing out on those precious revenue generating stream numbers.
Well, it turns out that it’s not just bands like Caliban, Alpha Wolf, and Fit For An Autopsy getting the Skynet treatment. Looks like artificial intelligence is coming for our hardcore acts too. Overnight, MetalSucks received word from bands and record labels about how the issue is more widespread than just a single genre and it’s causing some major concern for everyone involved.
Bridge Nine Records owner Chris Wrenn said this sort of thing just highlights a sort of malpractice going on within Spotify, since it’s up to the platform holder to ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen.
“How is it so easy to get scam tracks placed on streaming services? This illustrates the need for companies like Spotify to work more closely with labels and artists so that content created with AI by a third party can’t get passed off as real. I’ve learned this is happening to lots of bands, which is wild.
“Death Before Dishonor is busy working on their new album and people started hitting them up about this ‘new song’ that went online. Nobody wants to hear this fake shit, and their fans shouldn’t have to second guess if what they’re hearing is the real thing when using these platforms.”
To the average person not in the music industry, this all may not seem like a big deal, but it’s got major implications for the bands involved. Fraudulent A.I. generated tracks can sit on an artist’s page, amassing listens from confused fans that thing their favorite bands or artists just released some new music. Those listens come at the expense of the actual group’s music, leading to lost revenues and a potentially confusing situation for fans.
All the while, whoever uploaded the songs to the artist page begins siphoning off ever-important plays, generating income at the expense of the actual artists. Often times, Spotify doesn’t even get involved in the issue, opting to let the artists and their management take care of the problem themselves.
For Death Before Dishonor vocalist Bryan Harris, it’s incredibly infuriating to see someone trying to capitalize on the band’s name at the same time the actual musicians are in the studio working on new music.
“It’s frustrating seeing these releases that are made by AI and are being released on bands platforms without the bands knowing. We have been in the studio for weeks working on a new record, and to have someone drop this fake track under the Death Before Dishonor name on our Spotify page is crazy. Especially when the music is garbage and sounds nothing like the band. Is this happening to artists in the top 40 or are underground bands given less security?
“Navigating the music industry online nowadays is already tough, forget having other people pretend they are you.
“Hopefully these platforms can work with bands to prevent these types of things from happening. I can see bands losing fans over this. People get excited when a band they follow releases new music. It’s unfair to them (as well as the band) when they get a notification that said the band released new music when they didn’t. Maybe next time the listener gets a notification about a new song they don’t bother checking it. Everyone loses out.”
And while all of this causes confusion and siphons money from the actual artists, A.I. music can be potentially damaging to a band’s reputation. Since most of these procedurally generated songs are obviously of a lower quality than the actual artists’ work, it means hard-working bands and artists get knocked back down a peg or two as fans think the “new music” just sucks now.
That’s the main fear that the band Never Ending Game shared when talking about this ongoing A.I. music problem.
“The AI song fucking sucks so if someone thought we put that out ourselves that doesn’t sit right with me. Long term, if they can just flood bands pages with songs that aren’t theirs they can fuck with a lot. Let’s say we did have a single or an album coming out and people click on some AI song instead of ours and decide they don’t like us. Or if the AI gets right and cracks our sound then what? Live music gonna be replaced by a bunch of robots and computers?
“No computers are ever gonna figure me out, man. Keep trying… But I think Spotify gotta let us control who can put music on our profiles, but we haven’t heard anything from them. No one seems to care. They still get to profit off artists so why would they.”
Sadly, I think this is going to keep going until the powers that be actually get off their asses and ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. Because at the end of the day, a digital streaming platform is only as good and profitable as the artists on the service.
