What happens when music, musicians, and myth are entirely created by machines – and no one notices? The Velvet Sundown is the answer. In June 2025, a seemingly new indie rock band appeared out of nowhere on major streaming platforms, released two nostalgic-sounding albums, and amassed hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners on Spotify in just a few weeks. It looked like a breakout musical phenomenon – until it emerged that the band wasn’t real. Not the members, not the voices, not even the songs. The Velvet Sundown is a meticulously crafted AI project that demonstrates just how deeply artificial intelligence is already reshaping the music industry – and it raises urgent cultural questions in the process.
At its core lies a complete illusion: band members with evocative names like Gabe Farrow and Orion “Rio” Del Mar, retro band photos in warm sepia tones, a wistful biography filled with poetic origins and 1970s influences. All of it – from voices and lyrics to album covers and supposed personalities – was generated using advanced AI tools. No musicians entered a studio. Instead, generative AI models, likely including platforms like Suno or Udio, composed the songs, performed the vocals, arranged the instrumentation, and even wrote the liner notes. The result is strikingly convincing: the sound is reminiscent of Steely Dan, Midlake or Fleetwood Mac, dreamy and analog in feel – but, on closer listening, a little too polished, too consistent, too perfect. And that, in itself, is becoming an artistic statement.
Media scrutiny soon revealed that none of the band members had social media profiles, no live performances were planned, and no credible interviews could be found. That’s when it became clear: The Velvet Sundown was not a band, but a staged artefact. The music had been distributed via platforms like DistroKid, uploaded automatically to Spotify, Apple Music and others – all perfectly legal, without manual verification. Only Deezer has since flagged the music as AI-generated; Spotify, to date, has not. The band’s rise was suspiciously uniform, suggesting the use of purchased streams to boost visibility. Then came a bizarre PR twist: a spokesperson named “Andrew Frelon” gave interviews claiming the project was a social hoax – only to later admit he was a hoax himself.
What remains is a perfectly orchestrated piece of AI theatre, deliberately playing with our hunger for authenticity, nostalgia and the myth of the band. And with it comes a profound unease: is this still music – or just simulation? Many artists and critics see The Velvet Sundown as a warning. Without regulation, streaming platforms may be flooded by AI music – algorithm-friendly, cheap to produce, aesthetically tailored, yet culturally hollow. Others interpret the project as subversive art – a mirror held up to a music industry already shaped by formatting, data, and virality, now taken to its logical extreme.
The response has been as polarised as it is passionate. Some listeners feel deceived; others praise the quality of the songs and welcome what they see as an aesthetic revolution. Either way, the debate around AI in music has reached a new intensity. The Velvet Sundown is not just another AI band – it’s a deliberate provocation. It doesn’t exist – and that’s precisely why it matters. It’s perhaps the first project that doesn’t just use AI but becomes a commentary on it. Somewhere between algorithm and authenticity, a new soundtrack is emerging – one that doesn’t offer answers but forces us to ask better questions.
