A mysterious folk-rock outfit known as The Velvet Sundown has taken the streaming world by storm, amassing millions of plays on Spotify and capturing the curiosity of listeners with its vintage aesthetic. But there’s a twist: The Velvet Sundown isn’t a real band.
Entirely AI-generated, the group’s music, vocals, lyrics and even press images are products of artificial intelligence, created using tools like Suno and Midjourney. As the project rises on global charts and dominates Viral 50 playlists, artists and industry professionals are asking urgent questions about authenticity, consent and the future of music creation.
What is The Velvet Sundown?
The Velvet Sundown emerged in late June with two albums, Floating on Echoes and Dust and Silence, which emulate the mellow sounds of 1970s Americana. Their breakout track Dust on the Wind soared into the Viral 50 charts in the UK, Sweden and Norway, accumulating over a million monthly Spotify listeners in under a month.
At first glance, the band’s sepia-tinged profile image and nostalgic sound suggested a long-lost group rediscovered by digital crate-diggers. In reality, The Velvet Sundown is a carefully crafted AI experiment. The vocals, instrumentals and artwork were all generated through text-to-audio and text-to-image programs. Only after public scrutiny did the project’s Spotify bio quietly update to clarify that it was a ‘synthetic music project guided by human creative direction’.
Why The Velvet Sundown matters – and why it worries musicians
The Velvet Sundown has reignited debate around the ethics of AI-generated art. One primary concern is transparency: listeners streamed the music unaware it wasn’t performed by humans. With no labels or warnings provided by Spotify, many artists and producers fear that AI music could proliferate unchecked across platforms.
‘This isn’t innovation, it’s camouflage,’ one music producer told The Guardian. ‘The Velvet Sundown was deliberately designed to pass as authentic, which crosses a line. People deserve to know what they’re supporting.’
Critics have dubbed the project ‘AI slop’, a term for low-effort, machine-generated content that saturates platforms with derivative material. While some listeners have praised the project’s catchy tracks, others note that The Velvet Sundown’s music lacks emotional nuance and originality, with lyrics and melodies assembled from learned data rather than lived experience.
The Velvet Sundown and its Australian implications
While The Velvet Sundown is a global phenomenon, the ripple effects are being felt in Australia’s independent music scene. For emerging artists already struggling to cut through the noise of streaming algorithms, the rise of AI-generated bands threatens to marginalise human-made work further.
Artists such as Missy Higgins have previously expressed grave concerns over the use of AI. ‘It might be possible for ‘intelligence’ to be ‘artificial’ but most music is driven by the heart, not the head, and I don’t think artificial feelings can stir the soul,’ she said in 2024.
In a nation where federal funding for the arts remains precarious and digital discoverability is increasingly essential, many fear that AI-generated acts could dominate space previously reserved for independent musicians and experimental creators.
Is The Velvet Sundown the future or just a gimmick?
The creators of The Velvet Sundown have described the project as an ‘artistic provocation’, intended to spark conversation rather than displace musicians. But many in the industry remain unconvinced, particularly given the lack of transparency around its creation and its strategic use of nostalgia to appeal to human emotion.
Unlike human artists rooted in cultural context and lived experience, AI-generated projects like The Velvet Sundown simulate the sound of music without its substance. As singer-songwriter Missy Higgins put it in response to a recent APRA AMCOS report, ‘We don’t just make music for people to consume. We make it to make sense of the world, to connect with other people.’
This sentiment speaks directly to concerns raised by artists and cultural commentators alike: that AI-generated music, while technically proficient, lacks the emotional and political dimensions that define great art. The Velvet Sundown may sound familiar, but it says nothing new.
Without regulation, disclosure requirements or platform accountability, projects like this are poised to multiply. And while their viral success may reflect current algorithmic incentives, it raises serious questions about what kind of culture we want to build and who gets to create it.
What comes next for artists in the wake of The Velvet Sundown?
The Velvet Sundown is more than a viral oddity, it’s a warning. Without greater transparency and platform accountability, AI-generated content could reshape the music industry’s values, leaving human artists behind.
Some are calling for new regulations or labelling requirements, akin to Europe’s AI Act. In Australia, however, no such legislation exists. Until then, artists, audiences and arts organisations must continue to advocate for clarity, creativity and credit where it’s due.
Discover more arts, games and screen reviews on ArtsHub and ScreenHub.
