
One month, two albums, and numerous playlist placements later, alleged AI ‘band’ The Velvet Sundown cracked 550,000 Spotify monthly listeners by early Tuesday, July 1st. That number quickly surged past 600,000 by evening.
The Velvet Sundown plot is thickening, as the allegedly AI-powered “band” has topped 600,000 Spotify monthly listeners and pushed back against intensifying criticism. Meanwhile, Spotify is remaining silent on the rapid consumption growth.
Since our initial Velvet Sundown coverage – which arrived after Redditors began speculating that the playlist-heavy act might be the result of AI – the appropriate artist profile has added nearly 200,000 Spotify monthly listeners. As of early July 1st, this total stood at just shy of 555,000 and was quickly approaching 650,000 by the end of the day.
Surpassing half a million monthly listeners is a significant feat in the ever-crowded streaming arena – as is racking up millions of plays when the vast majority of Spotify tracks aren’t cracking 1,000 annual streams apiece. And doing so in less than one month is curiously impressive.
But that’s precisely what Velvet Sundown has managed to do with two albums (one released on the 5th, the other on the 20th). A third 13-track effort, entitled Paper Sun Rebellion, is slated to drop on July 14th.
Suffice to say releasing 39 songs in five weeks and change represents a rather aggressive schedule. But as initially mentioned, Velvet Sundown – or at least a social account tied to Velvet Sundown – is adamant that AI isn’t part of the equation.
(As things stand, two or more newly created X accounts are claiming official ties to Velvet Sundown. One of the accounts is very active, the other’s lone post contains a short trailer plugging Paper Sun Rebellion, and both are refuting the AI-use allegations.)
“Unbelievable the number of journalists who simply don’t check in with the **real people** their coverage affects,” reads one of Velvet Sundown’s (presumably trolling) X posts. “Guessing most of these ‘journalists’ are actually just AI!”
Of course, DMN and others have attempted to reach out to Velvet Sundown (which didn’t look to have any non-streaming presence at all until arriving on X) and its “members” (who don’t appear to exist).
(Also seemingly nonexistent is a website for Velvet Sundown, which, millions of streams in, has a modest Shazam count on its tracks. Actually, the VelvetSundown.com domain can be yours for $699, GoDaddy shows.)
“Many news outlets are falsely reporting that we are an AI-generated band,” another message states, “and nothing could be further from the truth! #VelvetSundown #NeverAI”
Despite the latter, image-analysis tools have pointed to gen AI as the likeliest source of Velvet Sundown’s album covers and “band” image; Deezer promptly slapped the tracks at hand with an AI tag, and Velvet Sundown has pushed back against the label.
Moving beyond the AI-or-not nitty-gritty in favor of more pressing sub-topics, Spotify has as noted stayed mum on the subject thus far – including our request for comment about Velvet Sundown’s reported Discover Weekly prevalence.
That leads to two more interesting ideas: Especially with all eyes on the “artist,” Spotify would have most likely yanked the Velvet Sundown catalog at once if streaming manipulation was a factor. Furthermore, the involved tracks are featured prominently in all manner of much-saved playlists.
Lastly, mostly lost in the Velvet Sundown conversation to date is the relative quality of the songs in question.
AI or not, with evidence and logic favoring the former, a human musician (musicians?) is probably pulling the creative strings for the “band”; Warner Music has already demonstrated how proper talent can fit into the AI-music process.
Following the information to its logical conclusion – and assuming the amount and quality of AI music continue to grow and improve, respectively – how many more “artists” resembling Velvet Sundown are forthcoming? And what will the on-demand streaming landscape look like this time next year?
We’ll have to wait for answers to the far-reaching questions – though if Velvet Sundown is to be believed, forming an alleged AI “band” can be extremely lucrative.