The Spotify star that doesn’t exist

Welcome to AI Collision 💥,

In today’s collision between AI and our world:

• I couldn’t quite believe it
• Is it real or is it “real”
• Evolution or death?

If that’s enough to get the tracks playing, read on…

AI Collision 💥

I saw a post online today and I couldn’t quite believe it. So, I went and had a look for myself.

I was in the car, waiting for my son to finish school. All I had to do was to jump onto Spotify and search for a new band

I typed in the name, and there it was…

The Velvet Sundown, Spotify’s latest breakout act. With 474,341 monthly listeners in a matter of days.

Except there’s something a little…off about it all.

There are no gigs, no interviews, no videos of the band members, not even any photos of them. At least none that were real.

Just streams. And vibes.

Can you detect where I’m going with this?

It’s real by the way, sort of real. Go look for yourself.

The music is real, the band is real, it’s all real and there on Spotify… buuuuuut none of it is actually real.

This isn’t a Black Mirror episode. It’s the music industry in 2025.

And you know what? It seems to be working. At least in this case it is.

The Velvet Sundown appears to be (no one seems to have verified it yet) completely AI generated.

Either that, or this is a real band with the best marketing approach to launching their music in the history of music.

But when you listen to the music, it is a bit weird.

It’s folky, but not really folky, it’s a bit of modern music, without really feeling authentic. It is good(ish), but in a way which kind of makes you question everything.

So, let’s assume it is all AI generated, which it does appear to be, and for the first time, we’re not listening to music by someone — we’re listening to music from something. From a machine trained on decades of songs we already loved.

Spotify didn’t make this artist (as far as we know). But it sure didn’t stop them. AI-generated playlist covers, listings, images, music, as weird as it might be, The Velvet Sundown feels less like a glitch and more like the next logical step in entertainment.

Think about it like this…

Every generation fears the death of music.

Elvis was going to corrupt the youth. The synth was going to replace real instruments. Auto-Tune was cheating. Now AI is here, and once again, the purists are screaming: “This is it! The death of real music!”

But here’s the uncomfortable truth, most modern music is already AI-adjacent.

Producers use machine learning tools to match keys, structure chord progressions, optimise mixes. TikTok songs are engineered for 15-second virality. Major labels test hooks on audiences before the final master is even finished. Even Drake’s last album (if you know who he is) was more data science than soul.

And The Velvet Sundown? Just the next evolution of it all.

No pretense. No tortured genius in a cabin with a guitar. Just neural networks trained to hit the serotonin buttons in your brain. Verse, hook, bridge, vibe. Repeat.

So is it the end of music?

Probably not.

It’s just the end of music as we knew it. Or the start of music as we’ll come to know it. You might not like it, but that’s ok, each to their own.

But you know what’s funny? This AI music boom isn’t that weird. Because music has always been recursive. Sampled. Reborn. The Beatles riffed off Chuck Berry. Led Zeppelin borrowed (some say stole) from the blues. Hip-hop is built on crates of old soul and disco.

Even the “greats” were remixers.

So when AI generates a Velvet Sundown track trained on Lana Del Rey’s vocal tone, or Coldplay’s whiny bullcrap (please see this to understand that reference), and splashes in a bit of Mumford & Sons production? It’s just doing what humans always did. Faster. Cheaper. More efficiently.

And maybe that’s the problem.

It’s not that AI is unnatural. It’s that it’s too natural. It mimics us perfectly without the mess, the ego, the pain, the sweat. It skips the part where the artist doubts themselves. The heartbreak. The fight to get heard.

But maybe that’s what will make real artists matter more.

Here’s my prediction… in an AI music world, authenticity becomes a luxury good.

When everyone’s playlist is 80% AI-generated, that remaining 20%, the raw, flawed, human-made stuff, becomes sacred.

Live music will matter more. Those sky high ticket prices won’t feel as bad because you’re paying for originality. Behind-the-scenes footage will be craved. The story behind the song becomes the song.

We’ll pay more for artists who are real because in a world where you can generate a banger in two clicks, it’s the imperfection, the vulnerability, the why that becomes rare.

The Velvet Sundown is not a gimmick it’s a glimpse of the future.

You’re not going to stop AI music. You can’t, I can’t. The tools are too good, the economics too compelling and the ease does appear to be…well, getting easier.

But it’s not the death of music, maybe it’s the rebirth of a deeper relationship with it. Perhaps it’s a pathway for us to search more for real, unheralded, unknown artists.

The Velvet Sundown is here, now and very “real”. Just don’t bother trying to buy a ticket.

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Boomers & Busters 💰

AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week).

Boom 📈

• AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) up 46%
• BigBear.ai (NYSE:BBAI) up 46%
• Appen (ASX:APX) up 18%

Bust 📉

• Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) down 4%
• Vicarious Surgical (NASDAQ:RBOT) down 4%
• Xpeng (NYSE:XPEV) down 1%

From the hive mind 🧠

• Is it a theft of creation when it’s not yours, but simply the tool you helped build or had built to get your MILLIONS of subscribers to use? Or is it just another way to cash in on insane levels of fame?
• Meta is said to be spending big money, tens of millions (or more) on top AI talent. It’s clearly making an indent as this reaction from OpenAI proves.
• This is absolutely fascinating, and flat-out weird.

Artificial Polltelligence 🗳️

Weirdest AI image of the day

Will glass coffins become a thing?

ChatGPT’s random quote of the day

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to leave comments and questions below,

Sam Volkering

Editor-in-Chief

AI Collision