The Velvet Sundown just confirmed their viral Spotify act is fully AI-generated. The “band” updated their Spotify bio, dropping any pretense: this is synthetic music steered by humans but powered by AI.
The new bio reads:
“The Velvet Sundown is a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence,” the band bio now reads. “This isn’t a trick — it’s a mirror. An ongoing artistic provocation designed to challenge the boundaries of authorship, identity, and the future of music itself in the age of AI.”
They hit over 900,000 monthly listeners after exploding onto Spotify playlists back in June. The mystery sparked even more drama when a hoaxer named Andrew Frelon impersonated the band spokesperson on X and duped media outlets, including a Rolling Stone phone interview.
Frelon later admitted to the scheme in a detailed Medium post, calling it a test of media gullibility.
The Spotify bio goes further:
“All characters, stories, music, voices and lyrics are original creations generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools employed as creative instruments. Any resemblance to actual places, events or persons – living or deceased – is purely coincidental and unintentional. Not quite human. Not quite machine. The Velvet Sundown lives somewhere in between.”
Industry insiders suggest streaming algorithms and paid playlist placements drove the band’s spike in exposure.
Glenn McDonald, ex-Spotify “data alchemist,” told Rolling Stone the shift toward AI-driven song recommendations and payment-driven playlist entries likely explain the sudden rise.
The Velvet Sundown just peeled back the curtain on AI’s growing foothold in music and the blurred lines between human and machine-made art.
