AI music impersonates real artists on streaming platforms

Jason Moran, a jazz composer and pianist, discovered a fake EP titled 'For You' on Spotify under his name, according to multiple reports. The EP featured a moody Japanese anime cover and was indie pop, not jazz. Moran does not use Spotify or put his music on the platform, preferring Bandcamp. According to The Guardian, Moran described concerns that the fixes are not enough and that AI content isn't always flagged internally.

Greta Morgan, also known as Springtime Carnivore, had an AI album titled 'Exit' added to her profile without her knowledge, multiple reports said. The album was uploaded to a music distribution website about a month before discovery. Morgan has spasmodic dysphonia, a disorder causing involuntary spasms in the voice box muscles, diagnosed during COVID. According to Metro, Morgan described the AI music as sounding nothing like her original music and called it 'lifeless' and 'mannequin music'. The composer listed on the AI album is 'Jonah Rogersz', which Morgan said sounds like an AI name. Metro could not find anyone named 'Jonah Rogersz' in official records databases or online. The AI album received 5,000 listens on Spotify in a couple of days, Morgan said.

At least a dozen famous jazz musicians, indie rock artists, and rapper Drake have been targeted by AI bots masquerading as real artists on streaming platforms, according to multiple reports. Spotify removed more than 75 million 'spammy tracks' over the 12 months prior to September 2023, the company said. Spotify is working on a tool to let artists review and approve or decline releases before they go live. A Spotify spokesperson said the company employs safeguards including detection systems, human review, and reporting processes. Spotify and Deezer removed the AI album after Greta raised it, but Tidal and Amazon Music have not, according to multiple reports. Deezer has AI detection tools and applies AI tags to artificial music, which is not recommended and taken down once flagged, Metro understands. Music streaming platforms generally forbid artificially inflating streams and have taken steps to clamp down, according to research. Spotify said it would charge labels and distributors for tracks that generate less than 1,000 streams per year under changes effective April 2024.

In the first criminal case of its kind, a man from North Carolina, USA, has pleaded guilty to defrauding music services of millions of dollars by flooding them with thousands of AI-generated songs and artificially inflating streams, according to multiple reports. Michael Smith allegedly extracted more than US$10 million in royalty payments by uploading hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs and using bots to stream them, prosecutors said. Smith has been charged with three counts of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, prosecutors said. The case is the first criminal case of its kind handled by prosecutors, US attorney Damian Williams said. Smith used hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs and thousands of automated bot accounts to stream tracks billions of times, according to the indictment. Smith claimed more than $10 million in royalty payments over several years, authorities said. Smith was at points operating as many as 10,000 active bot accounts, according to the indictment. The tracks were provided through a partnership with the CEO of an unnamed AI music company, who supplied thousands of tracks a month in exchange for metadata and a cut of revenue, according to the indictment.

Earlier this year, a man in Denmark was handed an 18-month sentence for fraudulently profiting from music streaming royalties, according to research. Global recorded music revenue reached US$29.6 billion in 2024, and the streaming economy exceeded US$20 billion in revenue for the first time in 2024, according to research. Deezer estimates that 18 percent of the content uploaded to the platform every day is AI-generated. Smith and Hay released an album called Jazz in 2017, then Jazz (Deluxe) in January 2018, which hit No. 1 on Billboard but dropped off the next week, according to research. Listeners for Smith and Hay's music appeared concentrated in far-flung places like Vietnam, Jonathan Hay said. Distributors flagged Smith and Hay's music for streaming fraud and pulled it down, Hay said.

The scale of AI-generated content on streaming platforms remains unclear, as does the number of artists affected. The identity of the CEO of the unnamed AI music company that partnered with Smith has not been disclosed. Legal recourse for artists like Moran and Morgan against impersonators is uncertain.