Not Demure, Not Very Mindful

This piece originally appeared on September 12, 2024 in Sound Signal, our biweekly newsletter that identifies emerging artists, scenes, and trending tracks, crafted by the world's best writers and curators. Sign up here to never miss our take on what's next in music.

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Just when it seems like the state of AI generative music can’t possibly develop any faster, the industry is shaken with more news. Michael Smith, a North Carolina musician, is facing criminal charges after collecting over $10M from “hundreds of thousands” of AI generated songs found on popular streaming platforms. Smith began creating these songs in 2017 and now faces wire fraud and conspiracy charges.  

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According to the indictment obtained by Billboard, Smith allegedly assembled “as many as 10,000” bots hosted under family plans on DSPs to game the listener counts. But, the indictment claims that Smith had quite a bit of help in this scheme.

As of now, the payouts for publishing rights holders from AI generated music is the same as a song that is created by actual humans—which was a pain point of the RIAA vs Suno and Udio lawsuit we referenced in Issue #34. Because of this, the grey area of “musicians” is muddier than ever.

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In mid-August, a Barbie-inspired album cover titled DEMURE popped up online just as the trans creator Jools Lebron’s TikTok using the titular phrase was going viral. How could the album be so on trend?

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The artist behind the album is a mysterious entity named Girly Girl Productions, and a quick listen could cast the music off as a new version of Kidz Bop—which couldn’t be further from the truth. Songs like “Coked Up Friend Adventure” sounds exactly like what it suggests, while “Girls Like Me” dons a saccharine production paired with lyrics about suicidal ideations. Still, DEMURE is starting to draw an audience. In the last month, Girly Girl Productions has seen a 358K increase in Spotify monthly listeners, gaining 14K followers on the platform. Its lyric videos on YouTube are drawing a crowd as well, with 72K channel views and 2.1K new subscribers since its release.

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While Broke Records recently posted on its Instagram that Girly Girl Productions is a “new signing,” there is very little news circulating about the identity behind the project. Commenters on TikTok seem convinced that its YouTube comedian Danny Gonzalez, while others believe AI is responsible for the off-the-cuff lyrics.

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The lack of transparency around generative AI music—who is behind it, who profits from it, how it is sourced—means that music fans have to constantly interrogate who or what they are actually listening to.