AI Band Controversy: Calls Grow for Legal Obligation to Label Music

The revelation that the wildly popular Spotify band Velvet Sundown, with over a million streams, was entirely AI-generated has intensified calls for a legal obligation on streaming services to label artificial intelligence-created music. This incident has brought to the forefront the challenges of authenticity and intellectual property in a rapidly evolving musical landscape.
Velvet Sundown’s initial anonymity and the subsequent admission that their music, imagery, and backstory were all products of generative AI, particularly the Suno platform, have been a wake-up call for the industry. The band eventually described itself as somewhere in between human and machine, highlighting the blurring lines of modern music creation.
Leading music organizations are now demanding action. Roberto Neri of the Ivors Academy points to deeply troubling issues with AI in music, urging for robust legal frameworks that guarantee consent, fair remuneration for creators, and clear labeling for listeners. Similarly, Sophie Jones of the BPI emphasizes that AI should serve human creativity, not supplant it, advocating for protective copyright measures and new transparency obligations for AI developers.
The broader concern revolves around the potential for independent artists to be exploited, with their music being used to train AI models without their knowledge or compensation. This mirrors past instances of AI-generated content infringing on established artists’ rights. While some platforms are taking steps to identify AI tracks, the consensus among many industry experts is that without comprehensive legal safeguards, the current situation risks repeating the mistakes of the early streaming era, where profits often outpaced fair compensation for creators.