A rising wave of fraudsters is using AI to release unauthorized music under the names of real musicians. The growing trend is leaving artists scrambling to protect their reputations and regain control over their streaming profiles. According to industry analysts, these AI-generated releases are increasingly slipping into official catalogs, creating confusion for fans and financial loss for performers.
Emily Portman AI music case
Folk singer-songwriter Emily Portman was among the first to raise alarms. Portman told the BBC she learned of an album called Orca only after a fan congratulated her on its release. She had never recorded it. “I clicked through and discovered an album online everywhere—on Spotify and iTunes and all the online platforms,” she said.
The music was unmistakably synthetic but eerily close to her own style. Portman explained the voice mimicked her tone, while the track names echoed titles she might have chosen. She described the situation as “really creepy.” Weeks later, another fraudulent album appeared on her official profile. This time, she said, the release was nothing more than “20 tracks of instrumental drivel—just AI slop.”
Copyright complaints and platform response
Portman copyrighted the fake albums to make them removed. Others like Spotify took weeks to act, whereas some took quick action. She also said she has not yet entirely taken command of her artist identity. Spotify said the releases were the subject of an incorrect addition to the incorrect profile of another artist with the same name. Portman disputed that account pointing to the apparent homages to her songs in the music that had been created by the AI.
Josh Kaufman cautions about AI music impersonation
Josh Kaufman, a New York-based producer, and songwriter, whose contributions to Taylor Swift on its Folklore album also faced a similar ordeal. Kaufman has remembered fan-letters to this effect, where addressees congratulate him on any supposed stylistic change. Rather, he opened up a computer generated music uploaded under his names. Kaufman guesses that most of them understood it was not him but a humiliating and blinding situation. He indicated that music constitutes the stamp of the soul and that it is quite appalling that a person can steal his artist profile so easily.
Portman and Kaufman are not the only ones. Several other folk musicians have stated they have found unauthorized AI music under their names including those of Wilco singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy, Father John Misty, Iron and Wine singer-songwriter Sam Beam, Teddy Thompson and Jakob Dylan. Industry monitors found out that much of the fake album titles used the same flavor of artificial imagery and were produced under a small cluster of suspect record labels. A pair of the labels incorporated Indonesian names, and a number of songs were given by the same songwriter: Zyan Maliq Mahardika. The name has been used in AI-generated songs in various genres, including metalcore and Christian music.
AI makes music fraud easier
Analyst, Tatiana Cirisano of Midia Research, outlined the reasons of why the problem is getting worse. She stated that AI serves as an instrument used by fraudsters to trick listeners into believing that they are listening to a particular artist because in the streaming age people are less inclined to question the quality of the song. Bad people are hoping to get enough plays to collect a check. Risano pointed out that scammers attack the mid-sized or less popular artists as opposed to worldwide megastars. The logic is straightforward streaming-gateways will be most likely to react promptly when big names are involved.
Streaming platforms have problems with several detection issues
Streaming services and distributors have noted that problem and are already pursuing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to identify fake releases. Nevertheless, Cirisano noted that fraudsters also incorporate AI to advance their methods. What it creates is a game of cat and mouse that seems to resemble the piracy of the first half of 2000s. All stakeholders have to play their role, Cirisano added. But it just gets messy in kvetching.
Industry veterans have compared the situation to the dawn of file sharing, when platforms struggled to police unauthorized uploads. At that time, artists faced widespread losses until new legal and technological frameworks caught up. Experts now warn that AI-driven fraud could be equally disruptive unless stronger protections are introduced.
Artists affected pursue legal and industry change
At this point, creators such as Portman and Kaufman depend on copyright infringement claims and direct communication with platforms. However, these procedures are time consuming and various music practitioners claim that they do not have the stamina to track down all phony releases. Lawmakers in industry groups are now starting to demand newer legislation regarding AI impersonation as often current copyright protections fail to extend across to this sort of situation when there is no human writer present. Portman underlined the importance of the emotional impact that is equally as harmful as the financial one. This is that we do. We are stamped with it on our soul,” she said. And anybody can just come into the facility and just have a key like that.
The problem of AI-generated instances in music tends to increase as the quality of such content improves, to which music platforms are under pressure to protect artists. The counterfeit albums that impinged upon Portman, Kaufman and others demonstrate how easily faith in artists, audiences, and sites can be broken. Analysts believe that the challenge will get even more severe before solutions begin to form. At the moment, musicians are fighting against illegal use of AI-driven music compositions, whereas fraudsters are using even the platforms that should help promote true creativity.
