In January, folk artist Murphy Campbell discovered several songs on his Spotify profile that did not belong there. They were songs that she had recorded, but she had never uploaded them to Spotify, and there was something off about the singing.
She immediately guessed that someone had pulled performances of songs she posted on YouTube, created AI covers, and uploaded them to the streaming platform under her name. I ran one song, “Four Marys”, through two different AI detectors, and it seemed to support his suspicions and both said it was likely AI-generated.
Campbell was surprised, “I was under the impression that we had a little more scrutiny before someone did that. But, you know, there was a lesson learned,” she told. The Verge. It took some time for Campbell to remove the fake songs, “I became a pest,” she said. And yet, it was not a complete victory. Although the offending tracks are no longer available on YouTube Music or Apple Music, at least one can still be found on Spotify, just under a different artist profile, but with the same name. There are now many Murphy Campbells – “Obviously, I was thrilled by it,” said the real Murphy Campbell.
Spotify is testing a new system that will allow artists to manually approve songs before they appear on their profile, but Campbell is skeptical after getting burned. She said, “I feel uneasy every time such a big entity makes this kind of promise to musicians. It seems like it’s not what they showed, but I’ll be eager to try it in the future.”
However, this was the beginning of Campbell’s nightmare.
the day a rolling stone After the article was published discussing Campbell’s brush with AI copycats, a series of videos were uploaded to YouTube through distributor Viadia. Those videos have not been posted publicly, and it is not clear whether anyone other than the uploader, known as Murphy Rider, has seen them. YouTube declined to comment for this story.
These were used to claim ownership of the material in several of Murphy Campbell’s videos. Campbell received a notice from YouTube that read: “You are now sharing revenues with Darling Corey, the copyright owners of the music found in your videos.” The most confusing part, all of the songs at the center of these claims are in the public domain, including the classic “In the Pines,” which dates back to at least the 1870s and has been covered by everyone from Lead Belly to Nirvana (“Where Did You Sleep Last Night”).
Viadia has since released those claims, and spokesperson Roy Lamanna says the person who uploaded the video has been banned from their platform. Of the more than 6,000,000 claims filed by Vydia through YouTube’s Content ID system, 0.02 percent were found to be invalid, which LaManna says is “surprising by industry standards.” Adding, “We pride ourselves on doing it the right way.”
Lamanna also says that Viadia has no connection to the Timeless IR or AI covers that were uploaded to the streaming platform under Campbell’s name. While the timing is certainly suspicious, Lamanna says the two incidents are separate.
Lamanna says Vedia has received a lot of blowback, including “literal death threats”, which led to the evacuation of the offices. Campbell isn’t going to exonerate Wydia, but notes that he’s not the only one to blame. The world of generative AI, music distribution, and copyright is complex with multiple points of failure and opportunities for abuse. “I think it goes deeper than we think,” Campbell says.
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