Streaming profiles on Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube belonging to several jazz musicians have been used to distribute music that appears to be generated by artificial intelligence, raising questions about identity safeguards on major platforms.
The affected profiles include those of saxophonist William “Sonny” Criss, vocalist Jean Carne, cornetist Red Nichols and clarinettist Jimmie Noone. New releases appeared alongside AI-generated artwork, with several attributed to a publisher listed as “Ami bacuk”.
Affected artist profiles#
- William “Sonny” Criss, who died in 1977, had two new tracks listed on his Spotify profile. The songs featured anime-style artwork and were credited to a composer identified as “Zainul Irpan”.
- Jimmie Noone, a Black Dixieland clarinettist and bandleader who died in 1944, had four singles added to his profile in April. The tracks, “You Have Hurt Him”, “You Have Hurt Him 2”, “He’s Still There” and “He’s Still There 2”, are pop ballads featuring what appears to be an AI-generated female vocalist.
- Jean Carne, who remains active, had apparent AI-generated material added to her YouTube Music profile. The recordings resemble broadly produced jazz but do not reflect her distinctive vocal style.
- Red Nichols also had new releases appear on his profile with AI-generated artwork.
The tracks attributed to Criss appear to be newly generated jazz-influenced recordings rather than reworkings of identifiable recordings from Criss or another established artist. The artwork on Noone’s releases differed markedly from the black-and-white imagery traditionally associated with his catalogue. The appearance of new material on the profile of a musician who has been dead for decades has raised questions about how such releases were attributed to his catalogue.
The cases highlight the difficulty streaming services face in preventing incorrectly attributed releases from appearing on established artist profiles, particularly as the volume of AI-generated music increases.
Platform response#
A Spotify spokesperson said “the releases have been removed from the artist profiles” and that “protecting artists’ identities is a top priority for us, and we continue to invest heavily in detection and prevention.”
Spotify has also been testing its Artist Profile Protection feature, which allows artists to review and approve or reject incoming releases before they appear on their profiles. The feature is part of the platform’s broader response to cases in which music is incorrectly uploaded or attributed to established artists.
Broader industry measures#
Other services are taking different approaches to AI-generated music. Deezer, for example, has developed systems to identify AI-generated tracks and exclude detected material from its royalty pool.
The incidents add to concerns about the ability of streaming platforms and distributors to verify artist identities and catalogue ownership before new material is published. The growing use of generative AI in music is creating challenges not only around copyright and royalties, but also around artist identity, catalogue integrity and the accuracy of information presented to listeners.
