AI-Generated Songs Published on Artists’ Spotify Pages Without Consent

A report by 404 Media has revealed that AI-generated songs were published on the Spotify profiles of deceased musicians without label or estate permission.

The details:

• A new song called “Together” appeared on the official Spotify page of country music singer-songwriter Blaze Foley last week.

• Foley was murdered in 1989.

• The Spotify page for the song features an AI generated image of a singer who bears no resemblance to Foley.

• Speaking with 404 Media, Craig McDonald, owner of Lost Art Records, which distributes Foley’s music and manages his Spotify page, said: “I can clearly tell you that this song is not Blaze, not anywhere near Blaze’s style, at all. It’s kind of an AI schlock bot, if you will... That whole posting has the authenticity of an algorithm.”

Mysterious copyright:

• The copyright mark on the bottom of the Spotify page for “Together” features a company called Syntax Error.

• 404 Media discovered that the same copyright mark is used on a page for another AI generated song that was uploaded last week, this time by Grammy-winning country singer-songwriter Guy Clark called “Happened To You.”

• Clark died in 2016.

• The page also features an AI generated image that bears no resemblance to Clark.

What they said:

• After 404 Media first published the story, they received this comment from Spotify: “We’ve flagged the issue to SoundOn, the distributor of the content in question, and it has been removed for violating our Deceptive Content policy.”

• As per 404 Media, SoundOn is a music distributor which is owned by TikTok “that mostly exists to allow people to upload music directly to TikTok and earn royalties.”

• It also allows artists to distribute their music to other platforms.

EDITS

• The headline and introduction was edited to better reflect that the songs were not directly posted by Spotify but were instead published on the artist pages