Video summary
Rick Beato addresses the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-generated music, specifically focusing on a purported fake band called Velvet Sundown that has gained significant traction on Spotify despite having no real members or physical records behind them. The artist boasts over 600,000 followers in just one week and is scheduled to release a second record soon, raising questions about whether this is a genuine marketing ploy or the result of undetected bot activity. Beato notes that while Spotify already pushes AI-generated tracks like light jazz and atmospheric music into playlists with millions of views without compensating human artists, the emergence of verified "fake" bands suggests companies are increasingly incentivized to fill their algorithms with synthetic content rather than paying real musicians for streams. Drawing from his experience testifying at a closed-door Senate hearing in 2023 alongside industry leaders like Elon Musk and Bill Gates, Beato argues that fully generative AI should not be eligible for copyright protection. He believes this lack of legal standing removes the financial incentive for corporations to monetize fake artists while bypassing payments to human creators who are being displaced by these streams. The situation highlights a growing divide where some listeners may eventually prefer "AI versions" of legendary figures like Michael Jackson or Prince, trained on their multitracks and controlled by publishing rights holders, potentially leading to scenarios where fans claim they enjoy the AI iteration more than the original artist's work. The discussion also tackles the complex definition of creativity in an age dominated by artificial intelligence, challenging the notion that human art is purely original when it often relies heavily on inspiration from previous works. Beato references William James' concept that "originality is just undetected plagiarism," suggesting that AI music simply lifts this veil to reveal detectable copying masquerading as innovation. He points out that even traditional musicians are inspired by those who came before them, using established techniques and structures, whereas AI tools can replicate entire songs based on prompts with minimal human intervention. This raises difficult questions about where the line is drawn between a creator prompting an AI versus simply recutting its output to claim ownership of independent tracks. Ultimately, Beato expresses uncertainty regarding how regulations will adapt to these technological shifts, noting that current workarounds allow users to generate songs via prompt and then manually edit them to avoid artifacts while claiming authorship. He questions whether platforms like Spotify should ban AI music entirely or if the industry must find a new way to define meritocracy in an environment where 80% of a creative process can be AI-enabled yet still attributed to a human creator. The episode concludes by emphasizing that as technology advances, society will need to grapple with protecting artists from having their plays and livelihoods eroded by synthetic bands while acknowledging the inevitable rise of high-quality AI music that some audiences may embrace over traditional recordings.
Read the full video transcript
We need to talk about AI artists.
Yeah. AI artists. Uh-huh.
What's going on? What's going on? AI
bands, AI everything. What's happening?
Um, I think that um
that
one of the AI companies is testing
whether people will accept AI music. I
mean, Spotify has AI music that they're
already pushing in playlists that um
uh that that
are that get millions of views. A lot of
it is kind of light jazz or atmospheric
music and things like that. But now they
have this thing I just made a video on
about this band, the Velvet Sundown,
that's a
purported to be a fake band that has AI
looking pictures
and AI sounding songs.
I always have said in my videos every
time I've made many videos on AI. I got
I testified at a Senate hearing in 2023.
Went to Washington. I was one of 19
people. It was a closed door session.
They did nine
closed door hearings. I was in the
seventh one. The first one they had Elon
Musk, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, all these
people were all the top people at these
big
about music
about No, this is about AI,
right? Okay. I was gonna say I don't I
don't think I care about Elon's music
toast. They they invited me in with all
the people SAG After um Spotify people
people for all these that worked at all
you know all all basically all different
interest groups right and then me
because I had made a lot of big videos
on AI music and one of my things that I
said is that I don't didn't believe when
they asked asked me questions the
senators asked me questions I don't
think that anything that's completely
fully generative AI should have be able
to
copyrighted.
So that takes away the financial
incentive for companies to uh to go and
put AI music out there to make money on
it. If Spotify can put out AI fake
artists and people stream it and they're
perfectly okay with it and then not pay
artists that are getting streamed as
well because they're and then that then
it just increases the incentive for them
to fill their playlist with fake
artists,
right?
But now what's happened is that there's
this artist that may or may not be fake,
the Sundown that has a verified symbol
on Spotify and they have a second record
even though there's no record of these
people. Kind of looks like a fake bio.
There's no record of these people. Uh
and they have another record coming out
in two weeks. A second record.
And
no one's coming forward saying it's us.
Now, if this was a a marketing ploy,
this is actually a very smart thing. But
people are saying in the comments and
the video I just made yesterday, well,
these are all bots that are on here.
It's got over 600,000 followers now on
Spotify in a week.
Went from zero to 600,000. It's crazy,
right?
Is the song any good?
Well, there's a whole record there.
Mhm.
And um
uh it's
I don't think it sounds good to me. I
not it doesn't uh
people are voting with their ears
though. Did you not say earlier on that
meritocracy here?
Yeah. And I think that people will
embrace like I I said early on when you
started seeing all these fake Drake
videos and and fake Beatles videos and
all this stuff that they were on YouTube
but with with the voices of the uh you
know young Paul McCartney or young John
Lennon, whatever. And I said eventually
there's going to be the Beatles and the
Beatles AI and Prince and Prince AI and
Michael Jackson and Michael Jackson AI.
There will be songs that are trained on
their music on the multitracks that are
controlled by whoever owns the
publishing. They license the stuff out.
And there will be people that say, "You
know what? I like Michael Jackson AI
better than Michael Jackson."
That's going to hap that will happen.
There are going to be people that like
AI music and they're perfectly fine with
it. Should there be protections in place
for artists to avoid
AI bands, AI artists coming in and
taking plays? Do you think that Spotify
should ban AI music?
Um,
should they ban it? Um,
well, there's so many workarounds with
this. I mean,
you can you can create your song via a
have AI a completely AI prompted written
song and then just recut it and then
it's you doing it. It doesn't have all
the artifacts. You have all the
independent tracks and everything and
and then who sues you? The Sunno or UDIO
or whoever owns the Hey, that's our
music. like, "Wait, wait, no, no, it's
not. I prompted it myself, then I
covered it."
It's like It's like the Spider-Man meme.
I don't even know what, you know, this
this
I don't know what's going to be done
with it. I don't know how they can um
I I I think this is a great take. I
think that's a really interesting one
cuz if you're a real person, but 80% of
the process is AI enabled, where does
the line get drawn? You know, you can
lock me in a room with some parchment
and a quill and say, "Write 60,000
words, no source material, or I can
prompt chat GPT to do it all for me."
Somewhere in the middle is where most
people are. And some people are
basically zero. Some people are
essentially a quill, but then they've
got source material. Ryan Holidayiday,
he's got reams and reams of flashcards
from all of these books that he's
reading. I I've become very obsessed
with the idea of plagiarism versus
inspiration because
very few ideas come from real first
principles. You you're telling me that
this was not inspired by anything? Well,
when I look at the saxophone that you're
holding, you're holding it the right way
up. You're blowing into the bit at the
top and not through the bit at the
bottom. So, you've been inspired by all
of the people that came before you that
taught you how to play a [ __ ]
saxophone. Right. right? Like, you know,
you're playing this thing in time.
You're using the kick and the snare in a
very typical sort of form because
there's only so many. So, everybody is
inspired or educated by what came before
them. And that goes all the way to well,
I read this book or I watched this movie
or I listened to this song and I like
that. Oh, that made me think about this
thing. So, there's a a wonderful line
from William James that says originality
is just undetected plagiarism. And what
we are seeing now is the veil being
lifted on detectable plagiarism, right?
Which is not only is this a direct copy
of something else, but it's a direct
copy of something else masquerading as
something original because it's been
reconstituted
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