'Frightened' by the perfection of AI music

No stage, no performance, but "virtual" bands are still causing a stir. Their appearance forces the music world to wonder: Who are artists in the AI ​​era?

The "virtual" band called The Velvet Sundown - Photo: Rolling Stone

In June 2025, The Velvet Sundown suddenly appeared on international music charts. At about the same time, a similar AI band called The Devil Inside also started receiving millions of listens on Spotify.

Two 'virtual stars' make waves in the music industry

Both are introduced as psychedelic rock bands with a musical style reminiscent of the 1970s. They release professionally promoted albums, with cover art, and full Spotify profiles.

But after media verification, the truth was revealed: none of the four members were real people.

The image of the "virtual" band The Devil Inside - Photo: The Devil Inside

According to public data, The Velvet Sundown has had several songs that have attracted massive streams, notably Dust on the Wind, which has recorded over a million plays on Spotify.

According to the official description, all music, vocals, and visuals are created using artificial intelligence (AI), under the direction of a small team behind the scenes. Spotify's description page states:

"A synthetic music project directed by humans, but composed, performed, and shaped with the help of AI."

At the same time, The Devil Inside project also created attraction with the song Bones in the River , reaching more than 1.6 million streams.

These numbers show that "virtual bands" are fully capable of reaching audiences on a commercial scale, although their identity and creative origins remain controversial.

Technology changes music and the concept of artist

According to The Guardian and CNBC, many experts describe AI music as "creepy perfect": clean sound, technically correct, but lacking human emotion.

Jason Palamara, assistant professor of music technology at Herron College (USA), commented on The Conversation : "Their concern can be summed up in one sentence: AI will create a world where music becomes abundant, but musicians are pushed to the sidelines."

He believes that today's AI systems can learn structure, harmony, rhythm and generate new works in the style of thousands of artists - Photo: The Velvet Sundown

Along with the rise of AI music comes a wave of lawsuits. The big three, Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Records, have sued two AI music creation companies, Suno and Udio, accusing them of using copyrighted data to train AI models.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Magazine (2025):

“While Napster challenged the way music was distributed and sold, AI-generated works, deepfakes, tracks, and performances are threatening the very foundations of musical composition and copyright.”

Faced with that pressure, Spotify and international music corporations are developing a set of "responsible AI" rules, requiring transparency of origin, clear revenue sharing and labeling for machine-generated songs.

Some other platforms like Deezer have started testing a warning label: "Part of the content in this album may have been generated by AI."

The rise of The Velvet Sundown and The Devil Inside is just the tip of the iceberg.

As tools like Suno or Udio become popular, for just around $30 a month anyone can create professional music without any performing skills.

Even big-name producers like Timbaland are getting in on the act, with the Stage Zero project "AI-created pop stars."

AI is changing the music industry: faster, cheaper and more efficient, but also at the expense of the most precious thing: human emotion.

MAI NGUYET

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khiep-dam-vi-su-hoan-hao-cua-am-nhac-ai-20251020111401935.htm