In the future, all music will be made with AI and we won't care: The Velvet Sundown's grotesque

The word ' technology ' refers to the "set of theories and techniques that allow for the practical use of scientific knowledge." Thus, music has always, since the dawn of time, been made with technology. The introduction of the electrical signal into the equation intensified its role in creation, and the arrival of computers amplified it exponentially, gradually reducing the human factor until we have reached a chapter in this story, that of artificial intelligence, which makes us dispensable.

The most optimistic maintain that songs generated exclusively by AI will never be as "good" as those created by humans, because they will always lack emotional impact. Although perhaps not so much in electronic music, they are convinced that in genres like rock, a usurpation will never be on the level of human creation. But this presumption has just been blown out of the water.

On June 5th, an album titled "Floating and Echoes" by a band called The Velvet Sundown hit music platforms. Two weeks later, a second album, "Dust and Silence," arrived, and before the month was out, the band was already approaching a million listeners on Spotify. People loved it. A star was born.

Then suspicions arose, but not exactly musical ones: the group's biography and photos of its members didn't seem very credible , so several media outlets began investigating the matter, and social media was filled with comments both for and against the band's physical existence. "They say we're not real. Maybe you aren't either," Velvet Sundown replied on their Facebook page.

The controversy took on the characteristics of a cultural soap opera of the year when Rolling Stone magazine published an interview with a man named Andrew Frelon, who claimed to be the band's manager and who acknowledged that the songs had been created using an AI program. Within hours, Velvet Sundown issued a statement denying any connection with the man: "Someone is attempting to impersonate us by publishing unauthorized interviews, unrelated photos, and creating fake profiles claiming to represent us. None of these profiles are legitimate, real, or have any connection to us. We have no affiliation with this person, nor any evidence to confirm their identity or existence. There is an ongoing attempt to misrepresent our work and appropriate something they didn't create." Frelon then reappeared to confess that he had "duped" the magazine.

That was enough for hundreds of fans to take to social media to claim the authenticity of this season's rock phenomenon, but the enthusiasm was short-lived. The streaming platform Deezer warned that "some songs" on Velvet Sundown could have "been created using artificial intelligence," and a study by the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique confirmed that at least ten of the thirteen compositions on the album 'Dust and Silence' were created using AI.

Seeing that the joke was no longer worthwhile, the individual or individuals behind it all posted a final message on the band's social media: "The Velvet Sundown is a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, sung, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence. This is not a trick: it's a mirror. A continuous artistic provocation designed to challenge the boundaries of authorship, identity, and the future of music itself in the age of AI."

A third album from The Velvet Sundown, 'Paper Sun Rebellion', will be released on July 14th , and it will be interesting to see how many streams it gets. If the soufflé drops suddenly, it means listeners no longer want to hear anything unless there's a real person behind it. If not, it means more and more streaming customers don't care where the music comes from. Besides, if they liked what they heard, why would they stop?

That's the great concern of experts on the subject such as Gina Neff, a professor at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, who explained on the BBC that this case is a symptom of the changes to come: "It may not matter whether this gang is AI or not, but it does matter that we are increasingly having a hard time distinguishing what is real."

In Spain, where a few months ago we experienced a similar case with Las Nenas, another band created with AI that took weeks to identify as fake, a record label dedicated exclusively to artists generated with this technology has already emerged. And the fact is that when it comes to styles like techno, reggaeton, trap, or anything that is predominantly computerized music, there is an open field of unlimited possibilities. Because as long as these creations are able to emulate current hits, it is highly likely that new generations of listeners will accept them as authentic and become increasingly accustomed to not paying attention to their origins.

Even the man who until recently was the scourge of AI, ABBA singer Björn Ulvaeus , has already given up. As president of CISAC, the international body that brings together composers from around the world, he warned last year of the "enormous dangers" that all this entailed. But a few weeks ago, he said this in an interview: "I've realized that it's a wonderful tool. It's really an extension of your mind. You have access to things that you couldn't think of before." And he added: "A misconception is that AI can write an entire song. It's terrible at that, very bad. Thank God!" A claim that the Velvet Sundown case has decisively refuted, given that its songs have been well-received by a million people.

Thirty percent of the most-streamed tracks on Spotify are made with AI. How long will it take for us to see it overtake us? Frankie Pizá, an expert in this field, a critic and cultural promoter with two decades of experience, is convinced that this trend will only increase: "If we accept synthetic works without context or authorship, we also begin to accept the manipulation of sound history. The music industry will become an infinite music machine, valueless and customized for each specific user."