Fake AI singer on Spotify has nearly 3 MILLION listeners as music industry is 'taken over'

A soul singer boasting nearly three million monthly listeners is competing with global pop stars like Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter. But there is a catch.

On the surface, the Spotify singer “Sienna Rose” has risen rapidly as an artistic “success.” However, Rose is not a real person, but an AI-generated artist, part of a growing wave of digital “musicians” entering the industry, per Metro.

This week it was revealed that Sienna, reportedly earning over $2,500 per day on Spotify, does not exist. Since September, she has released EP Velvet Embrace, multiple projects, and a so-called “debut album,” Honey on the Moon.

Despite amassing roughly 2.7 million monthly listeners, there is no indication on her Spotify profile that she is computer-generated. According to Metro, AI artists are allowed on the platform.

Spotify has described AI as part of “the evolution of music production,” comparable to synthesizers in the 1980s or GarageBand in the 2000s. A spokesperson said, “AI is a fast-moving shift for the entire music industry, and it’s not always possible to draw a simple line between AI and non-AI music.”

They added, “Spotify is focused on actions that guard against harmful AI use cases, including removing spam and deceptive content, strengthening enforcement against impersonation and unauthorized voice cloning, and supporting industry-standard AI disclosures in music credits.” The spokesperson also stated, “Spotify does not create or own any music and does not promote or penalize tracks created using AI tools.” 

However, AI-generated tracks still earn the same royalties as human-made music. While artists like Timbaland and Ryan Tedder have embraced AI, many others argue against it in music.

Unlike Spotify, French music streaming service Deezer has taken a stricter stance by detecting and labeling AI music as well as removing it from recommendations. Deezer reports that 97 percent of listeners cannot tell AI from human music, and that AI tracks once made up 34 percent of daily uploads.

Deezer executive Manuel Moussallam said, “I think we should allow users to know if what they are listening to is from a real artist or AI and they can then make their own decision.” He added, “But as a platform we have decisions to make on what content we want to push forward, so we decided that in cases when users are not actively monitoring, or unable to make an informed decision, we are going to remove the content. You won’t find it in our algorithm or our editorial playlists."