Never posted on Reddit before but a while ago, I discovered this artist on Spotify called 'TOKYO CHILL LABS' and later found another account called 'Japanese Chill Lounge' with exactly the same voice, face, and sound.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5KjACf3hRBih15vDJRwkU7?si=I9Kr-7vsSNGkyXzR9z3S1w
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1BglJrE3iRI9CPcXLALJJv?si=ViUhUXWyTwipy3Y5Z5POJw
It recently became very apparent to me that everything is AI generated. I mean, no one would call themselves that or have album covers that just say 'Chill rap'. Also with less than a week between full album releases with 20 songs is just insanity.
As an artist myself, this is really frustrating to see AI used to pump out songs and barely anyone could tell especially since this artist was recommended to me by another very legit art streamer who probably had no idea either. The vocals in the songs are all consistent as far as I can tell, and sound human. The lyrics also seems pretty good to me even though I don't know much Japanese so I'd like to ask if anyone can explain how to identify AI generated songs, preferably without having to go through a whole discography and say "they all sound the same". Maybe if someone could also point out parts in this artist's songs that particularly stick out as being AI generated because I really had no idea.
Recommendations with real artists that sound similar would also be appreciated.
well the music is usually pretty bland and lifeless with great sounding production. the vocals are also unusually crisp and virtuoso without a hint of human limitations nor idiosyncrasies.
if you can't find any info about the "artist" (no articles, no socials, no perfs.) and they've got a ton of 'releases', chances are , they're a fraud
I once clicked into a YouTube video, and realized it was AI music.
But out of curiosity, I scrolled down to the comments and found one praising the "breath control" of the "singer." Goes to show, you don't have to worry about breath control when you don't have to breathe.
True, with good sounding production but only 10k monthly listeners I suppose it was suspicious rather than it just being a good 'underground artist' with no online presence. I feel bad for the singer whose voice the ai was trained on.
yeah... usually it's an amalgam of artist voices they feed into the program. sometimes it's just one. I came across a channel about a month ago on YouTube that sounded awfully like a young Harada Tomoyo with a bunch of generic Shitty Pop and it made me uncharacteristically annoyed.
I guess years of physical collecting before streaming was widely available is not an experience people have these days. I will tell you what I do in the digital age these days.
You must have existing genres you like, or at the very least favorite artists and songs. I would go back to seeking curators: what are the top artists other people have recommended if you are interested in any given genre? If you like artist A, what genre are they in? Who are their contemporaries? In the digital age it is not difficult to find this out. You’ll have to leave the streaming platform to do it, but that’s how you learn about who the canonical artists are.
I’d then go down the line and listen to the top albums and songs in that genre that have stood the test of time, or if you are looking for new material look for human-curated playlists. You’ll find recommendations that are very mainstream and also frighteningly specific. You take that and search directly for the albums and artists. This means leaving the algorithm behind and building your own search strategies to find music you like.
If you do this then the question of “is it AI or not?” is irrelevant. Once you’ve listened to enough genuine examples the artifacts of AI voices and instrumentation will begin to stand out. Even if it sounds right, you’ll rarely be surprised by AI generated music. That’s the biggest tell for me… the incredibly homogenized nature of AI-generated music. No personality. There are few artistic choices being made.
But…. if that’s not important to you, no shame. Enjoy what you like. Just know that anything you find that are generated by these models is likely derived from the work of others you’d probably enjoy a whole lot more. It’s worth the effort to try, IMO.
I've been pretty good at doing that so far. I find that even more unknown artists are somewhat well established in their own niche or in industry and would have something about them somewhere. I know people who fall for AI more often and when I hear it it seems drone-like and monotonous even through there's nothing inherently noticeably wrong about it in terms of sound. Thanks for the advice though, I'll try the idea of looking through other people's playlists.
I kind of feel for the singers online who don’t want to show themselves at all for privacy but usually release covers or even originals. There have always been a lot, especially in the Asian music scenes, and ones who have been around for years are likely fine. But anyone who hasn’t is going to be also fighting against AI songs now too.
How can you tell? research the artist.
The surface level answer: look up the “artist”. It’s literally that simple.
The actual answer: By not listening to AI generated songs? Seriously, streaming is the issue here. Stop streaming and start downloading.
I know it sounds a bit pretentious or condescending, but if you take art seriously enough to actually hate AI, you wouldn’t wanna stream anyway. Streaming culture is so objectively anti-art. A Spotify exec has literally gone on record and admitted that their primary user base are people who don’t actually like music as art, but as background noise.
I had a few tracks downloaded since I don't use Spotify much so thank goodness I didn't stream it much. I don't mind still listening to it but only the couple songs I already heard. Wouldn't want to consume anything new and spend my time streaming real artists instead.
I was working and blasting spotify and suddenly I hear a sign and I stop and wince and I'm like what is this shit ??? I check the song namr and it's literally Labubu Dubai Chocolate 24 Karat God or something with a AI generated image of a Labubu wearing gold and all
I wish we could dislike songs again
Are you me? I was listening to them on YouTube earlier this evening and decided to try to find the “artist” of one of their songs, only to find out it’s AI. I guess the giveaway that I never realized I needed to look at, was that none of their songs had artists listed. Super pissed as I want to support real human artists, but I guess I’ll need to be more mindful of YouTube “playlists” in the future.
Gotta be careful around YouTube playlists, especially if it's all very 'one track'. Lofi and jazz definitely have it worst, it used to be chill versions of pop songs or actual lesser known artist with their own sound but now they've become saturated with AI. It's best to look at older playlists from before 2022 at the latest.
Bells. Chimes. They can’t really do high frequencies well I’ve noticed.
Have you seen them on TV? Signed to a know record label? Have seen them live? If not, then prepare to find out they are AI
If it sounds good who cares. Relax and enjoy the journey