Asger Risom
As AI top charts, it’s becoming increasingly clear: AI songs are no longer just internet curiosities.
AI songs are no longer just internet curiosities. They are climbing charts, flooding streaming services and forcing record labels to decide whether to fight them in court or fold them into the business.
The result is a music economy where real artists are competing with machine-made versions of themselves.
Algorithm hitmakers
In November, the AI act Breaking Rust sent “Walk My Walk” to number one on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, with more than 8 million Spotify plays. The project’s profile shows a rugged cowboy, but the singer is synthetic.
Blanco Brown, known for blending country and rap, says the creator used AI to mimic his sound and style. He told the Associated Press, “If someone is going to sing like me, it should be me.”
Cases like this expose how easy it is for AI tools to create hits that feel familiar while blurring who actually made the music.
Labels change tune
When AI tracks first went viral, labels tried to shut them down. Universal Music Group pushed YouTube to remove a clip of “Eminem” rapping about cats, and streaming services took down a fake Drake and The Weeknd hit made by the anonymous Ghostwriter.
Now the strategy is shifting. Business Insider reports that Warner Music Group has settled with AI generator Suno and signed a partnership, after tests showed it could output songs in the style of ABBA and Chuck Berry. CEO Robert Kyncl called the deal “a victory for the creative community that benefits everyone.”
UMG has also resolved its copyright suit against Udio and plans a subscription service built on generative AI and licensed catalogues.
Attention on the line
AI companies are facing lawsuits across media for training on copyrighted work. Yet labels see a chance to “futureproof” themselves, says Chris Wares of Berklee College of Music, who notes, “AI is here to stay, it’s transformative.”
The volume is staggering. Deezer has said around 20,000 fully AI-generated tracks were being uploaded daily, almost a fifth of all new content. Business Insider found at least six AI or AI-assisted songs on Billboard charts this year, while projects like The Velvet Sundown rack up streams with bands that appear to exist only as AI images.
Fans as creators
The promise is new fan-made music that can still pay artists, as long as they opt in to having their voices and likenesses cloned. But every AI remix or mashup using a famous voice competes with the artist’s own catalogue.
“The reason why no generative AI music can be artist-first is because we are in a finite attention economy. Every minute that is spent listening to a generative AI track is a minute less spent listening to an artist track,” says Mark Mulligan of MIDiA. “We are definitely in a world now where more and more consumers are creating, and that is competing with entertainment time.”
Mulligan argues that AI tools could reopen a more communal relationship with music, turning fans into active collaborators. “We’re widening the funnel of creativity,” he says.
Some artists, like Grimes, are experimenting by licensing voice clones. Others, such as Brown, are reclaiming their sound with new releases like his “trailertrap” remix of “Walk My Walk.” As AI output grows, listeners may increasingly have to ask whether the voice in their headphones belongs to the artist they love or to an algorithm trained in their image.
Sources: Associated Press, Business Insider
