What does AI band The Velvet Sundown’s rise mean for the future of music?
In just six weeks, the ‘band’ has pumped out three albums containing 13 songs each and has roughly 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify
While few expect The Velvet Sundown to start picking up Grammy awards in the near future with its bland indie ballads, there are some who are beginning to wonder.
In the space of just six weeks, the band has pumped out three albums containing 13 songs each and had close to 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify as of July 22.
But The Velvet Sundown – or rather, its makers – do not hide behind the fact that it has been relying on artificial intelligence to do so.
“Not quite human. Not quite machine. The Velvet Sundown lives somewhere in between,” it says on the band’s social media accounts and its Spotify site.
It is said to be a band of four, but the members have not been seen in public so far. Images of the group have evidently been created by AI.
Music by The Velvet Sundown started making the rounds across streaming platforms in early June. Combining rock, country and folk elements, most of the songs are interchangeable, mellow and tame – as long as you ignore lines like “March for peace, not for pride” in the group’s most played song, “Dust on the Wind”.