A psych-rock project named The Velvet Sundown has recently accumulated over 400,000 listens on Spotify in less than a month. Unfortunately, doubts about the authenticity of this band arise, suggesting that their content might be generated by artificial intelligence instead of human musicians.

The band’s Spotify biography features a description of their members, including “singer and mellotron player Gabe Farrow, guitarist Lennie West, synth specialist Milo Rains, and percussionist Orion ‘Rio’ Del Mar.” However, there seems to be a lack of social media presence for any of these purported members, raising suspicion. Their first album, Floating on Echoes, was released on June 5, and a third album is scheduled for release on July 14. The album covers also appear to have been created using AI.

Reports reveal that users cannot find any evidence proving that these band members exist outside of the music they have produced.

“Never give the robot the Aux cord.” — This phrase becomes a cautionary tale about the potential pitfalls of embracing artificial intelligence in creative spaces.

Despite the alarming absence of transparency regarding AI involvement, the rapid accumulation of streams suggests the possibility that many of these listens might not be from actual human listeners and could involve algorithmic manipulation or artificial inflation through playlists.