Metalcore Bands Respond to A.I. Songs on Spotify Under Their Name

What is going on with all the A.I. generated metalcore songs turning up under legit band’s profiles on Spotify?

There has been a surge of late of acts such as Alpha Wolf, Caliban, Fit for an Autopsy, Like Moths to Flame, The Devil Wears Prada, While She Sleeps, Memphis May Fire, ERRA and others reportedly having A.I.-created songs they had nothing to do with turning up under the profiles.

Bands Taking Notice

In some cases, the bands themselves have called out the fake songs. According to Idioteq, Alpha Wolf had posted a message stating, “This is not Alpha Wolf. Metalcore has been hacked. We are working on removing ASAP.”

Caliban also posted on their Instagram about the infraction, stating, “A song has been released via our Spotify artist profile that is not ours. A fraudulent artist posing as Caliban has uploaded an AI-generated song via a dubious distributor that is now scheduled for release. Caliban is not affiliated with this release. We and our team are working on resolving this issue.”

In their message, they noted that this had happened to several other bands throughout the metalcore scene and that labels and management were getting involved to have the music removed.

“We thank you for your ongoing support of real, handcrafted music written by human beings,” stated the group.

Later issuing an update, the band added to their post that they were not associated with the song and while the labels and managers were working to clean up the situation, “it should be clear to everyone what problems and dangers lurking due to AI-generated music.”

What Is Happening?

According to Idioteq, the issue is tied to a broader, coordinated effort in which individual have used A.I. to mimic well-known metalcore bands at trying to pass off the often instrumental-based music as the band’s own. The songs have been distributed on Spotify through a company called Vibratech Musicians.

By having the songs appear under the band’s profile, it’s a tactic that can be used to deceive listeners, fund the content creators and potentially divert fans away from the artist they were searching.

In addition, a Metalcore Reddit thread has been dedicated to the ongoing issue. The author of the thread collected all of the A.I. generated tracks they had found under real band names. At press time, a majority of the songs had been taken down.

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Yet another fan had started a thread on the X platform of A.I. generated tracks, the results of which can be seen below.

According to Spotify, artists work with distributors to handle the music licensing and distribution of their material and lining up the royalties that will be paid. They also offer a preferred and recommended list of distributors.

With this wave of A.I. generated material under real band profiles, this should serve as a warning for users to be aware of the ongoing issue and for bands to remain vigilant in what appears under their name on the streaming platform.