Are we ready to embrace the future of artificially generated music?
It feels like just yesterday when I first heard the word "AI" ( specifically "ChatGPT") come out of my dad’s mouth back in December 2022. He called it the future; I called it a scam. I mean, how could something do everything in seconds? How could it respond differently every time and somehow keep learning on its own? It all seemed way too good to be true. Fast forward a year, and AI is everywhere. I realized just how real it was when I started seeing labels like “AI Info” or “Made by AI” pop up on my Instagram feed the moment I opened the app. I was honestly shocked. Are people really posting artificially generated images now? What happened to #nofilter?
What really surprised me, though, was something I stumbled upon while researching for my blog. I came across a CNBC article titled “AI-Generated Music is Going Viral—Should the Music Industry Worry?” That’s when I froze, staring at my screen with a loud “HUH?” echoing in my head for a solid minute. This wasn’t some distant concept anymore, it was real. Not only that, it had already become commonplace over the past few weeks. I didn’t like where this was going. Reading that article, and several others, made me feel uneasy, even scared. It left me questioning whether I wanted to participate in this new, manufactured world where AI seems to be everywhere. I wonder if this is how my parents felt during the rise of the internet or smartphones. Probably.
Here’s a band name for you: The Velvet Sundown. Sounds like your typical up-and-coming band, right? Over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Psychedelic rock vibes. Earning thousands in streaming royalties. Their bio described them as “a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction.” They released two albums in June: Floating on Echoes and Dust and Silence. So far, pretty normal, almost too normal. Things got strange when someone calling himself an “adjunct” member revealed that The Velvet Sundown had used the generative AI platform ‘Suno’ to create their music, and that the whole project was actually an “art hoax.” Soon after, the band’s official social media denied the claims, saying their identity had been “hijacked.” But then came the twist: they released a follow-up statement confirming it was an AI-generated project—“Not quite human. Not quite machine. Living somewhere in between” (Bakare, 2025). Their Spotify bio now openly states: “The Velvet Sundown is a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence.”
To a regular listener, that’s... surreal, right? I can’t be the only one who feels like this is taking things a step too far. Imagine growing up listening to your favorite band, say, One Direction, only to later discover that:
The entire band was made up.
Harry, Liam, Louis, and Zayn never actually existed.
All their songs were generated by an algorithm in under a minute—no heart, no soul.
That would’ve crushed me as a kid. But maybe this is becoming the new normal for kids born today. Some don’t even know a world without ChatGPT or AI tools. Honestly, and it’s kind of embarrassing to admit, sometimes I wonder how I ever got anything done without them.
As tech critic Palamara pointed out:
“Early versions could be used to make catchy, repetitive hooks... but we’ve gotten to the point where AI is putting out songs that actually make sense structurally, with verses, choruses, and bridges.”
He also said The Velvet Sundown is probably just the tip of the iceberg. Platforms like Suno and Udio, today’s “gold standard” in generative AI, have removed almost all barriers to entry. Anyone can create hundreds of songs in a single sitting. Both platforms are free to try, with premium subscriptions costing less than $30 a month (Butts, 2025).
Now, it seems the real music industry is starting to fight back. As AI “bands” dominate charts and claim attention, they’re also diverting already-scarce royalties away from real, struggling artists. And that, in my opinion, is the scariest part of all.
“It’s obviously a challenge in the industry. Same as everything else, the technology gets created and gets used before there’s any guardrails or policies in place to protect musicians”
The quote above comes from Elliott, director of Canadians affairs for the American Federation of Musicians, which represents 70,000 professional musicians in the U.S. and Canada. For the past year or so now, I’ve heard talks about rules and regulations against the use of Artificial Intelligence in general: in schools, the corporate office, images and now music. But it seems as though nothing ever really takes off; I mean how can it? It’s all so accessible now. Elliott said musicians should have to provide consent for their work to be used to train AI learning models, and they should be compensated if they do consent (Maimann 2025).
The Velvet Sundown ‘Band’
“For a band that doesn’t even really exist to then get all that social media attention, it’s so discouraging ”
To prepare young artists for the changing music environment, music professors said, they’ve increasingly been working AI into their lesson plans, aiming to teach students how to use the technology to enhance their creative process and music production, rather than replace it. Some established producers have also leaned into the trend. Last month, Grammy-winning artist and producer Timbaland launched an AI-focused entertainment venture, called Stage Zero, which will feature an AI-generated pop star. “Other producers are going to start doing this ... and it will create a completely different model of the music industry that we can’t predict yet,” Palamara said. He added, however, that he does think the trend will make earning money as an artist online even harder (Butts 2025)
On the other side, media networks are using The Velvet Sundown as an advantage to extend their media influence across the industry. India's Collective Media Network launched an AI-generated spiritual rock “band” called ‘Trilok’ earlier in June, along with videos explaining each of the AI-generated band members' personas, in the latest sign that AI music is going mainstream.
“We’re not pretending Trilok isn’t AI, that’s the point,” said Subramaniam, Founder and Group CEO of Collective Artists Network. “The bandmates are fully digital characters, each with their own identity, personality, and journey. We’re building something that goes far beyond music. This is a new genre, a new storytelling format. I’ve always believed technology is a friend and not a foe and it should fuel creativity.” (The Economics Times 2025).
Similarly (and shockingly), in France the streaming platform Deezer said in April that around 18% of its uploaded songs (~20,000 songs a day) are entirely AI generated.
So, are we really ready to embrace the future of artificially generated music?
I think the instinctive answer for most people is still no. But the numbers suggest otherwise. As of July 2025, The Velvet Sundown has over 1 million monthly listeners and while that might not compare to streaming giants like The Weeknd or Ed Sheeran, it is still a significant number of people. And the strange part is, many of them might not even realize they are listening to music created by artificial intelligence. At its heart, music has always been about emotion. It connects with people because it feels real. That is why something about songs being generated in minutes, with synthetic voices and made-up identities, feels wrong to me. It lacks the depth and soul that real music carries.
Maybe we cannot stop this shift, just like we could not stop the rise of the internet or the arrival of smartphones. But what we can do is ensure that strong rules and clear boundaries are put in place. Regulations and honest conversations might be what we need to shape how AI fits into the future of music and beyond. But who is to say how and when these boundaries will be put into place? It seems as though we can only sit and patiently wait for someone to come up with something sustainable.
