MUSIC’TOR-VOZ ‘from ia Velvet Sundown’ Banda ‘now says he is a fake of Velvet Sundown on Spotify also denies any bond of Andrew Frelon-the alleged’ spokesman ‘-with GroupPor Writing

The pseudonym ANDrew FRELONwho spoke to Rolling Stone Last Wednesday, 2, as a spokesman for the Viral de Ia Velvet sundown – and that manages a Twitter account that claims to represent the group – now says, in a post in the Mediumthat it was all an elaborate media farce. The band’s official page in Spotify also published a warning insisting that Free – that had “confirmed” that the band created songs with the AI ​​tool Sun – You have no bond with the group. At the moment, Velvet sundown has over 850 thousand monthly listeners in Spotify.

An account of Velvet sundown no X, linked to the band’s official page in Spotifysent a message to Rolling Stone in the early hours of Thursday asking for a correction and reiterating the repudiation of Free. “We understand the fascination that our project awakens – and we are not here to dissipate the mystery,” said the account via DM. “But we are here to correct the facts … Velvet sundown It is a multidisciplinary artistic project that mixes music, analogic aesthetics and speculative narratives. Although we embraced ambiguity as part of our narrative design, we ask that reports on us are based on verifiable sources – not from manufactured reports or synthetic media. ” (The “band” has not yet responded to the additional comment request.)

In your extensive post on Medium, Free states that it took advantage of the absence of Velvet sundown On social networks and turned an account that he had created in March in what seemed to be the band’s “official profile”. From there, he said he used a series of “social engineering” tricks – including interactions with the press – to make the profile look legitimate, with the supposed purpose of testing journalists.

“Knowing, by previous projects, how the dynamics of journalistic coverage work,” he wrote, “I thought it would be funny to start drawing journalists in a generic way for not having wanted us for comments.” Free also said to Rolling Stoneon Wednesday, which has great interest in “artistic farces”. (The phone number from which Free Code, with area code 514, now displays a message of “Out of Service Number.”)

Despite the evidently artificial origin of their photos and songs, Velvet sundown It was included in several playlists of the Spotifyconquering a significant audience that led to wide media coverage. Glenn McDonaldformer “data alchemist” from Spotifysaid to Rolling Stone That the rise of the band is an example of the change “of understandable algorithms, with a strong base in listening and real human communities” to AI -driven systems, capable of “selecting music for recommendations based on purely sound characteristics.”

+++ Read more: the tool that generated band songs that became fever on Spotify