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Meet Velvet Sundown - the band that doesn’t really exist

They’ve been getting thousands of streams online.

The Velvet Sundown have become a viral hit. The band have over a million streams on Spotify and are generating much discussion across the music community.

Except the band and its members don’t actually exist.

After weeks of speculation about whether they were real or not, the band have confirmed that they were AI. This has raised many questions about the ethics around AI and music, and whether it actually matters if an artist and their work is human or not. BBC journalist Tamzin Kraftman talks us through the story and discusses the development of AI in the music industry.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld
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Presenter: Iqra Farooq
Producers: Josh Jenkins and Emilia Jansson
Editor: Emily Horler

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11 minutes

Last on

Tue 8 Jul 202502:50GMT
BBC World Service East and Southern Africa, South Asia, West and Central Africa & East Asia only

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Broadcasts

  • Mon 7 Jul 202517:50GMT
    BBC World Service News Internet
  • Tue 8 Jul 202502:50GMT
    BBC World Service East and Southern Africa, South Asia, West and Central Africa & East Asia only

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