Spotify Spotted Platforming An AI-Copycat of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Spotify was spotted platforming an AI copycat of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard earlier this week following their departure from the streaming service in July.

Spotify’s problems with AI regulation have continued, as the music streamer was spotted hosting an AI copycat of the progressive rock group King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.

The Australian progressive rock group would announce their departure from Spotify in July, citing CEO Daniel Ek’s €600 million ($1.07 billion AUD) investment in an AI military start-up.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, frontman Stu Mackenzie would expand on his decision to leave the streamer.

“We’ve been saying f*** Spotify for years,” said Mackenzie. “In our circle of musician friends, that’s what people say all the time, for all of these other reasons which are well documented.”

Now, in their absence on the platform, an AI copycat has moved in to take their place.

A user on Reddit would be recommended a new generative-AI track on their Release Radar from the band ‘King Lizard Wizard’.

The track titled ‘Rattlesnake’ caused confusion with fans, as the original King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard also have a song with the same name. Even more, both songs would have identical lyrics, adding more fuel to the assumption that this copycat nature is most likely intentional.

Since the story broke, not only has the track been removed from Spotify, but it seems the entire “artists” discography has been removed as well.

As Futurism would report, the band’s single EP featured five tracks, all sharing song titles with existing King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard tracks.

AI imitators moving to take over bands that have left the platform marks a new development for the platform. Previously, new AI-generated songs had been appearing on existing artist profiles without the consent or knowledge of said artists.

Bands like Anthrax, Oceansize and even K-pop Demon Hunters group ‘Huntr/X’ would fall victim to the scheme.

Even more problematic was that these AI-generated tracks would also appear on deceased artists‘ Spotify pages, which are often only monitored by labels and enthusiasts, who wouldn’t notice that the new song had remained on their page for days.

At the time, Spotify would blame SoundOn, a music distribution company owned by TikTok. SoundOn enables users to upload music directly to the platform, earn royalties from it, and distribute their music to other platforms.

In September, Spotify would announce new policies to protect artists against “spam, impersonation, and deception. However, releases still consistently invade users’ Release Radar and Discover Weekly playlists.

Given that a recent AI country song has just topped a digital Billboard chart, the chances of music platforms imposing substantial barriers on the upload of AI music seem grim. Hopefully, at least, Spotify can prevent malicious copycats from exploiting the platform.

A representative for Spotify would later share a statement with The Music, writing:

“Spotify strictly prohibits any form of artist impersonation. The content in question was removed for violating our policies, and no royalties were paid out for any streams generated.”

Stu Mackenzie would also reply to the situation, writing that he was “trying to see the irony in this situation,” adding, “But seriously wtf we are truly doomed.”