The Velvet Sundown, the AI-created band that keeps growing: why nonexistent musicians have gone viral

That psychedelic rock beat might sound like something you heard in the 1970s. Those carefully layered arrangements might remind you of bands like The National. And the intimate atmosphere surrounding Dust on the Wind might evoke echoes of Kansas' now-classic Dust in the Wind . Because, indeed, all of this is present in the music of The Velvet Sundown , one of the viral phenomena of the last month on digital platforms.

But before we continue, a tiny detail. None of this seems to be true, even though it may have seemed so at some point. Beyond some AI-developed images, with that unmistakable tanned tone, nothing is known about singer Gabe Farrow. Nor about his bandmates Lennie West, Milo Rains, and Orion Del Mar. Not a single image that allows us to trace the four members of the group beyond those shown on their social media. And always the four of them together.

The Velvet Sundown's first track dates back to June 5th, when the album Floating and Echoes arrived on Spotify. Just two weeks later, on the 20th, a second one appeared on the platform: Dust and Silence . And, according to a tracker on their profile, a third one, Paper Sun Rebellion , will be released on July 14th. Various facts point to the fact that all of them were also created using AI.

The Deezer platform, which has technology to detect the use of AI, warned that both albums contain "some songs that may have been created using artificial intelligence." A study conducted by the French Ircam Amplify, a subsidiary of the prestigious Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique, with its verifier and shared with the Music Ally website, found that 10 of the 13 songs on the album Dust and Silence were created 100% with that technology , likely using the Suno 4.5 program. This is the same program that a spokesperson for the band assured Rolling Stone magazine they had used to create their music—although in a blog post, the same spokesperson, under the false name Andrew Frelon, claimed that he had fabricated his relationship with the group.

Despite all the evidence surrounding the use of AI to create this music, with the resulting moral debate it sparks, Spotify streams continue to grow. On Monday, they were around 500,000 monthly; on Wednesday, they were already over 600,000; yesterday, they were over 750,000, and that trend looks set to increase. These are higher numbers than established Spanish indie artists like Iván Ferreiro or Lori Meyers, and close to those of Zahara.

They've had a little help with that. The Velvet Sundown have made it onto a few playlists with significant audiences on the streaming platform. Two particularly noteworthy ones are managed by the Extra Music profile: one about the Vietnam War, with over 630,000 followers, and with which the band has nothing to do beyond its 70s vibe ; and a second, with over 210,000 followers, focused on positive music to start the day, which also doesn't fit the band's music. Both have featured more than a dozen songs by this anonymous group.

For their part, the band's social media accounts are busy issuing statements denying that their songs and images are the product of AI, although the facts seem to contradict these claims. On Instagram, there are three accounts with the band's name. One only shows a video of the upcoming album alongside two statements denouncing that their identity is being stolen. Another features a dozen photographs of the members, a couple of them recreating legendary scenes from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and the Beatles' Abbey Road , with the aesthetics of those created with this technology. But, for the moment, the number of listeners continues to grow.