Recently, AI artists have hit the charts on Spotify, providing a wide variety of music options: rock, country, jazz, and R&B. These artists are not always described as artificial intelligence in Spotify’s background information, and have surprised many who learn they are not human. 

Sienna Rose, in particular, is an AI artist that has hit Spotify’s viral 50 and has almost 5 million monthly listeners with jazz and soul-based tracks. The most popular song under Sienna is titled “Into the Blue” with 10 million streams. The generated works have been described as similar to those by Alicia Keys and publicly supported by the famous artist, Selena Gomez, on social media before she became aware that the tracks are developed with AI. Whether Sienna Rose was human or not first became a debate when listeners noticed that Sienna Rose has no social media presence and is “producing” music at an incredibly fast rate. 

The Velvet Sundown is a popular AI band that produces alternative or indie music with one million monthly listeners. The tracks are meant to be nostalgic and geared towards older generations. Originally, a person had publicly lied about being a part of the band and the band’s AI usage. Since then, the band has been described as, “Not quite human. Not quite machine,” on Spotify. In this case, the band is said not to be completely generated, including both human and AI elements.

Other digital artists are not as popular but have gained some attention. Many believe Spotify is contributing to the promotion of these artists and their songs, as most listeners would not knowingly listen to AI-generated music. Spotify, however, has stated against this and said it has removed 75 million spam tracks. Still, Spotify has not yet taken steps to label AI-generated music. Additionally, these tracks are cheaper for Spotify and other streaming services to put out, with lower licensing fees and payout costs. This could be an issue for real artists later on if AI music continues to be used and popular.