The band The Velvet Sundown has gained over 500,000 monthly listeners—but as Rolling Stone reveals, behind the viral sensation is no real band at all, but rather AI-generated music created using the tool Suno.
Two mysterious albums appeared in June without any digital footprint, immediately raising suspicions among Reddit users and musicians. Deezer flagged potential AI involvement, while Spotify required no disclosure—allowing the songs to land on over 30 curated playlists.
While the creators initially dismissed the AI accusations as “lazy and inaccurate,” one of them, Andrew Frelon, later admitted that Suno was used—specifically its Persona feature, which maintains a consistent vocal style across multiple songs.
Why does this matter?
Because it raises a question that’s becoming increasingly relevant: Will audiences even care if an artist is real—as long as they like the music? Just as V-tubers have found acceptance regardless of who’s behind the avatar, music may be shifting to a space where sound trumps identity.
The future of the music industry might already be here—and it doesn’t carry a guitar, but a prompt.
In Brief: Tech World Highlights
- Yelp is testing a new suite of AI features, including a voice-call agent that allows restaurants to handle phone calls using AI voice assistants.
- The Trump administration may soon replace Biden’s export controls on AI chips with license-based agreements targeting specific countries, moving away from broad restrictions.
- Google announced that its Audio Overviews podcast-generation feature will expand to over 50 languages, enabling easy multilingual content creation.
- Hyundai has officially opened a new automated factory in Georgia, capable of producing 500,000 electric and hybrid vehicles annually.
- China’s humanoid robot rental market is booming, with demand coming less from R&D and more from event organizers and exhibition planners.
AI Trending Tools
- QVQ-Max – A new advanced visual reasoning model from Qwen.
- Flora – An intelligent canvas with tightly integrated creative AI tools.
- Researcher and Analyst – Microsoft 365 Copilot’s AI agents for work-related tasks.
