The Velvet Sundown, an indie psych rock band, has blown up with over 850,000 Spotify listeners in weeks—despite intense doubts about whether the band is real.
The band’s Instagram claims it’s “Saving Modern Rock,” but all their promo images look AI-generated. The music sounds bizarre enough to raise eyebrows too.
Music producer Rick Beato, with 5M YouTube subscribers, found suspicious “artifacts” in The Velvet Sundown’s tracks. He says that’s typical for AI-generated music. 
Beato dropped this in a YouTube video:
“This is having a lot of problems, and I suspect that it may be because this is an AI track,”
“Every time you have an AI song, they are full of artifacts.”
The band first appeared on social media in June and sports a “Verified Artist” badge on Spotify. On X, they teased a new album, Paper Sun Rebellion, while cheekily addressing the AI rumors:
“They said we’re not real,” the band posted.
“Maybe you aren’t either.”
The Velvet Sundown’s social media denies the presence of any fake profiles after a person claiming ties to the band called it an “art hoax” in Rolling Stone—a claim that person later admitted was itself a hoax. The band said that individual “does not represent us, speak for us, or have any connection to this project.”
The band’s YouTube publisher Distrokid and Spotify ignored requests for comment.
Streaming service Deezer says 100% of The Velvet Sundown’s tracks were AI-generated—its AI detection tool flagged every song. Deezer doesn’t promote AI tracks on recommended playlists and adjusts royalties to favor human artists.
Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier said:
“AI-generated music and AI bands may generate some value to the user, so we still want to display that.”
“We just want to make sure that the remuneration is taken in a different way.”
Every week, Deezer flags roughly 180,000 AI tracks—about 18% of new uploads—tripling the number in two years.
Suno, an AI music generator possibly tied to the band’s creation, declined to confirm involvement but urged people to focus less on “is it AI or not AI” and more on “how did it make you feel.”
Grammy-winning producer Timbaland recently launched an AI artist through Suno, highlighting industry interest in AI musicians.
Meanwhile, artists like Velvet Meadow’s Kristian Heironimus are frustrated watching an AI band like The Velvet Sundown rack up hundreds of thousands of listeners in weeks while they grind for years. He describes The Velvet Sundown’s music as “soulless.”
The rise of The Velvet Sundown spotlights growing challenges around AI, music authenticity, artist compensation, and identity theft in digital art.
Spotify and Distrokid stay silent as debates rage about what counts as “real” music in the AI era.
