I Hijacked a Real Artist's Spotify with AI Music. It Was Disturbingly Easy
A journalist used DistroKid's loophole to publish an Udio-generated song on Lathe of Heaven's verified Spotify page, exposing a widespread AI music royalty scam.
A 404 Media reporter generated a punk song with Udio and, via a $3.75-per-month DistroKid account, released it under the name of Brooklyn punk band Lathe of Heaven without any identity verification by the distributor or streaming platforms. The AI-generated track appeared a day later on the band's Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music and Deezer pages, with royalties flowing to the uploader. Similar abuse has hit deceased musicians such as Blaze Foley, and Spotify says artist profiles that are not actively managed are especially vulnerable.
- DistroKid auto-matched a new upload to the real band's streaming pages without verification
- AI song appeared on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music and Deezer within a day
- Deceased and lesser-known artists are the most common targets of the scheme
- Neither distributors nor streaming platforms take responsibility for hijacked profiles
- ATT&CK
- T1656 Impersonation
- Victims
- Lathe of HeavenBlaze Foley
From the original article
8 min read at 404media.co
A glaring loophole in digital music distribution makes it very easy to piggyback on the talent of real artists with AI generated music.
By Emanuel Maiberg · 404media.co
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.