I found an awesome 80s style cover of one of the Kpop Demon Hunters songs on YouTube. I still like it — but the channel has dozens of videos including 5-6 of any given song, they make more than one a day, and when people ask them to go on Spotify, they say they won’t — which is interesting because Spotify just banned AI generated music. So I’m 99% sure they’re an AI band. My point is, I can’t help liking the song, so I feel like we’re screwed because that could happen to anyone. (FWIW I’ve downloaded the song so I can play it offline. So they don’t make money from my plays.)
So my question is. How do we know? And what can we do?
Only listen to artists who you’ve seen live?
Edit: I feel like this could be seen as dismissive, but truly the solution is to embed yourself in your local music scene. Support real artists who are people in your communities. Dont let algorithms designed to benefit big tech/record labels determine your listening habits. Keep an eye on the schedules from your local venues big and small, or follow their RSS feeds. Listen to community radio if you can. Follow people from your local/DIY music scene on social media. We need to build community around music again and reclaim a culture that supports artist rather than content creators and isnt controlled by large platforms ran for profit. Great music has existed on these fringes literally forever and still thrives in smaller communities today.
For further reading: “Mood Machine - The Rise of Spotify and the Cost of the Perfect Playlist” by Liz Pelly
Depending on your music taste, this is bad or even impossible advice. A significant number or genres I listen to generally don’t perform live, let alone anywhere near me.
Yeah, I’d love to see SrenHlimMrews live, but … I don’t live in Chengdu where I could haunt underground clubs for the rare times they pop up to play.
What I described is more of a necessary culture shift to disincentivize “AI music” as digital content, which is unavoidably pervasive in the muddied waters of cloud based algorithmic music streaming. The platforms where these things propagate are built explicitly to enrich those who already control the music industry, and pro-artist people-centric communities where oxygen isnt given to AI slop must be decoupled from these platforms.
As you say, diving into the local music scene isnt an answer for everyone to find the music they love without risk of slop being mixed in, but I do see it as essential to following the path toward revitalizing the cultural importance (and livelihoods) of artists over content creators, engagement metrics, and lopsided payment structures that have allowed AI slop to pollute our lives.