Psych-rock band The Velvet Sunset have garnered over 500,000 month-to-month Spotify listeners and launched two full-length data in a single month, with a 3rd on the way in which this July. Whereas this fast rise can be spectacular for any music act, it seems the group could also be a product of generative AI.
As one Twitter consumer identified, The Velvet Sunset have achieved all of this regardless of solely current for 2 weeks. Along with pumping out albums like there’s no tomorrow, all photographs posted on their social media accounts seem to have been made with AI. This impressed web sleuths to research the band’s doubtlessly fabricated origins.
The yellow-tinted, smoothed-over, and hyperrealistic nature of The Velvet Sunset’s press images strongly hints at using AI, however little data is out there in regards to the group past their Spotify artist web page.
Associated Video
In line with their bio, The Velvet Sunset’s music is “’70s psychedelic alt-rock and people rock,” and the lineup is comprised of 4 purported “members”: singer and mellotron participant Gabe Farrow, guitarist Lennie West, synth participant Milo Rains, and percussionist Orion “Rio” Del Mar.
But, these members aren’t traceable on-line past the band’s Instagram account, which was began simply days in the past on June twenty seventh. Among the images characteristic the “members” having fun with burgers to rejoice their second LP’s launch, and recreating The Beatles’ Abbey Highway album cowl (sans one member showing barefoot).
Whereas it’s attainable that The Velvet Sunset’s greater than half one million month-to-month listeners could possibly be bots, their hottest tune on Spotify, “Mud on the Wind,” is closing in on 500,000 streams as of publishing. Spotify doesn’t enable bots on its platform, however does allow AI-generated music with no disclosures obligatory.
The band has already launched two albums simply 15 days aside: Floating on Echoes and Mud and Silence. A 3rd, Paper Solar Insurrection, is due out on July 14th. Their songs are additionally featured on outstanding Spotify playlists like “Vietnam Battle Music” and “Good Mornings – Fortunately Optimistic Music to Begin The Day.”
The Velvet Sunset’s music isn’t restricted to Spotify, showing on different streaming platforms like Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Deezer. Their data on the latter service carry a disclaimer: “Some tracks on this album might have been created utilizing synthetic intelligence.”
The group’s artist biography is a confounding phrase salad that reinforces their manufactured aura. “There’s one thing quietly spellbinding about The Velvet Sunset. You don’t simply hearken to them, you drift into them,” it reads. “Their music doesn’t shout on your consideration; it seeps in slowly, like a scent that out of the blue takes you again someplace you didn’t count on.”
It continues, “The Velvet Sunset aren’t making an attempt to revive the previous. They’re rewriting it. They sound just like the reminiscence of a time that by no means really occurred… however in some way they make it really feel actual.”
There was rising concern about AI on streaming platforms and past. A December report in Harper’s Journal alleged Spotify is supplementing playlists with “ghost artists” to lower royalty payouts, whereas a separate examine from the identical month recommended music creators may lose as much as 24% of their income by 2028 resulting from an absence of protections and insurance policies towards AI.
Nevertheless, there are some artists who’ve embraced the expertise. Again in 2023, Grimes launched Elf.Tech, an AI software program that allowed customers to report music that may rework their vocals into Grimes’ personal. Extra just lately, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus revealed he was writing a brand new musical with AI help, whereas Timbaland introduced a brand new firm known as Stage Zero alongside its first signee, an AI artist named TaTa.
apparently this band has solely existed for two weeks and it’s all AI. how lengthy till you see somebody carrying their merch lol pic.twitter.com/5F7d3bq8RG
— gaz (@SilentGarrett) June 26, 2025
