‘Deplorable’ Aussie rock band imitated by AI after leaving Spotify
A popular Aussie rock band have had their art imitated by AI after pulling their tracks from Spotify.
Aussie rock band King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard have found themselves in a battle with AI, months after pulling their music from streaming giant Spotify.
Gone from the streaming space, an AI imitation band seemingly took their place.
The band “King Lizard Wizard” was recommended to a Reddit user by Spotify this week, with a song called Rattlesnake.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard also have a song called Rattlesnake, so when the user investigated the recommendation, he found an imitation of the original song.
Calling it “a bad AI ripoff, from aesthetics to band name,” the user went on to say “I find this absolutely deplorable and am now quitting my account”.
The sentiment was popular on the thread, where users were calling out “fake” AI drops from bands like Bikini Kill and Days of the New.
“How streaming platforms don’t see that allowing this will be the literal death of their services is beyond me,” one person wrote.
“Actual music lovers will reject and move to any other platform that starts properly regulating this.
“Whichever platform makes the move and promises to regulate would win big.”
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard had pulled their music from the streamer to protest Dan Ek, Spotify’s Executive Chairman.
They said they were “trying to see the irony” in the AI mimicking situation, but added that “we are truly doomed”.
Ek is the chair of a military technology company called Helsing, and also a major investor.
Artists and unions have claimed that he pays low royalties while funding weapons, which led Ek to step down from CEO and into the Executive Chairman role.
Massive Attack was another band to pull their music over the alleged conflicts of interest.
In a statement, Spotify told The Guardian that: “Spotify strictly prohibits any form of artist impersonation. The content in question was removed for violating our platform policies, and no royalties were paid out for any streams generated.”
AI-generated music continues to pose an issue for Spotify though, with the streaming platform sharing in September that they had removed 75 million tracks thought to come from AI artists in the preceding year.
AI-generated music poses a real threat to artists, especially if the bots have been exposed to artists’ music in order to learn what to create.
Last year, 200 artists, including Billie Eillish and Katy Perry, signed an open letter urging tech and streaming platforms to employ ethical guidelines for the responsible use of AI.
With King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard unlikely to return to Spotify, their music is now available to be streamed on Bandcamp.
Originally published as ‘Deplorable’ Aussie rock band imitated by AI after leaving Spotify
