Spotify Publishes AI-Generated Songs Under Dead Artists’ Names Without Permission

Spotify is being criticised for uploading AI-generated music onto artist profiles of deceased musicians without any authorization from estates or record labels.

404Media notes that in one example is Blaze Foley,  as the deceased country singer-songwriter who met his death in 1989. The song “Together” appeared on the official Spotify page of Blaze Foley, yet used a generic male vocalist who played piano and guitar.

The music did not match any of Foley’s known musical compositions, according to fans.  The page even included an AI-generated image of a man vaguely resembling a singer, but not Foley, as reported by 404Media.

“I can clearly tell you that this song is not Blaze, not anywhere near Blaze’s style, at all,” said Craig McDonald, head of Lost Art Records, which manages Foley’s catalog, as reported by 404Media. “It’s kind of an AI schlock bot, if you will. It has nothing to do with the Blaze you know, that whole posting has the authenticity of an algorithm,” he added.

McDonald noted, “They could fix this problem. One of their talented software engineers could stop this fraudulent practice in its tracks, if they had the will to do so.”

The song was removed by Spotify since it violated their Deceptive Content policy, as reported by 404Media. The music track circulated through SoundOn, which operates under TikTok ownership to distribute content to various streaming platforms. 404Media reports that TikTok hasn’t commented.

Meanwhile, AI-generated music is making waves across the platform. A fully AI-generated band named Velvet Sundown recently made it onto Spotify’s charts with two albums before listeners uncovered that both the music, and band members, were all AI generated. As a result, experts are calling for clear labeling as AI music gets harder to detect.