Who thought this would be a good idea?
Spotify is under fire after AI-generated tracks mysteriously appeared on the official profiles of late country legends Blaze Foley and Guy Clark, without permission from their estates.
One song, “Together,” falsely attributed to Foley (murdered in 1989), featured a generic AI country singer and artwork bearing zero resemblance to the outlaw musician.
Craig McDonald, owner of Foley’s label Lost Art Records, called it “AI schlock” that harms the artist’s legacy.
A Spotify representative stated that they have “flagged the issue to SoundOn, the distributor of the content in question, and it has been removed. This violates Spotify’s deceptive content policies.”
Meanwhile, the same shadowy entity, Syntax Error, uploaded another AI song under Guy Clark’s name, raising alarms about Spotify’s safeguards.
McDonald demands Spotify implement approval controls before songs attach to legacy artists.
This isn’t Spotify’s first AI rodeo: fake bands like The Velvet Sundown amassed millions of streams before admitting they were algorithmically spawned. But hijacking deceased artists’ pages? That’s a new low.
