Velvet Sundown: Musicians facing being 'AI brushed' out of existence, Scottish performers warn

The Velvet Sundown is partially generated by AI

A group of Scottish songwriters and performers has warned musicians risk being “AI-brushed” out of existence unless urgent action is taken by the music industry and government to protect human creativity from artificial intelligence.

Tumbling Souls - a Scots supergroup featuring members of ‘90s indie band Astrid, trad favourites Hò-Rò, and festival stalwarts Boys of Summer - have spoken out ahead of the release of their human made new single 1995. The group is calling on music lovers to support artists made of flesh and blood, not code.

The warning follows the meteoric rise of AI-driven The Velvet Sundown, which has racked up more than 750,000 listeners on Spotify in just one month - despite having no live presence and no social media footprint.

A spokesman for the digital project has admitted to Rolling Stone magazine the music had been created using AI-generator Suno - generating fake images, music and names, describing the project as an “art hoax”.

The Tumbling Souls | The Tumbling Souls

Tumbling Souls lead vocalist and co-founder Willie Campbell said the situation should alarm anyone who values real music made by real people.

He said. “As if releasing new music wasn’t hard enough, now we have streaming royalties going to someone who’s cleverly prompted an algorithm - duping hundreds of thousands into thinking this is a real band.

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“Meanwhile, for artists like us, there’s no income from our first thousand streams. That’s a brutal reality. We’re pouring in our own money and time - writing, recording, juggling jobs and new babies - just to get the music made. And now we’re up against this kind of thing.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone this week, band spokesperson and “adjunct” member Andrew Frelon admitted things that were fake “have sometimes even more impact than things that are real”.

He had originally maintained that AI was used only in brainstorming for the music, then admitted to the use of Suno, but “not in the final product”. Mr Frelon finally came to acknowledge that at least some songs were Suno-generated.

He also acknowledged employing Suno’s “Persona” feature — the same one Timbaland is using with his controversial AI artist TaTa — to maintain a consistent singer’s voice across songs.

Mr Campbell said artists often struggled to get playlisted on Spotify or played on radio without the support of an army of pluggers, promoters, or being on specialist platforms. But he warned the new AI model meant they were also left competing with bots that did not sleep or tour, and did not need to get paid.

“Its hard to get a break as it is without this,” he said. “That’s not looking for sympathy, it’s just pointing out that there are already enough challenges in doing what we love.”

“Technology is amazing when it supports progress, but this is different. If the industry isn’t careful, we’re looking at a future where people simply can’t keep making music.”

Mr Campbell added: “We’re lucky we still can and we just hope people enjoy the new song the way we’ve created it. That’s what it’s all about at the end of the day.”