Paul Bender’s musical journey reached new heights when The Sweet Enoughs became the cherry atop his cake. Having previously seen his band Hiatus Kaiyote featured in samples by major artists like Beyoncé, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar, as well as earning three Grammy nominations, he now found himself basking in the success of his instrumental exotica venture. With The Sweet Enoughs, this Melbourne-based artist and producer has garnered millions of streams along with acclaim from musicians such as Tyler, the Creator.
Great. But then he spotted some footprints he didn’t remember capturing – or saving online.
It was likely the poorest musical effort I’ve ever come across. It was completely burnt,” he comments about the song that unexpectedly surfaced on the Sweet Enoughs’ Spotify page earlier this year. “Initially, I figured perhaps somebody had created their debut track using the same title. However, it kept recurring repeatedly.
That’s when it hit me — this is a scam.
What he and countless supporters heard turned out to be fake content: low-quality audio recordings accompanied by standard cover artwork, all posted under his project’s title. He was certain these tracks were too uninspiring and guessed they had been created using artificial intelligence.
They could be disturbingly simple to set up as well. While viewing content on YouTube, Bender came across a music technology vlogger.
TankTheTech shows how an AI-created track can be uploaded to any artist’s profile within 10 minutes.
— no hacking, no passwords, no verification needed.
It’s really absurd,” he states. “There isn’t even single-factor authentication. Someone could easily add their own tunes to my profile at this moment.
The problem doesn’t just affect Spotify; similar fake accounts quickly popped up on platforms like Tidal, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Deezer. “You upload via a digital distributor, tick one checkbox, and it gets distributed across all these services without any checks or verifications.”
In 2024, fake tracks started popping up on the profiles of metalcore groups, with Australian bands like Alpha Wolf and Thy Art Is Murder being affected. This caused buzz among technology magazines and online fan communities. However, Bender envisions something more significant—a substantial loophole rather than just an error—that could potentially pave the way for new business strategies.
If this continues unchanged, people might begin using your whole collection to train AI systems. These AIs would then generate music that closely mimics your style. Your fans visit your page expecting authentic content; instead, they’d end up listening to poor imitations.
He argues that the main issue lies in the deliberate lack of action from distributors and streaming platforms. Implementing simple password protection “would resolve most of these issues instantly,” he adds. Adding two-factor authentication would address even more problems. According to him, these technology firms have plenty of developers who could tackle this within just a few hours.
So far “it’s just them passing the buck — ‘it’s the distributor’s fault, no, it’s the platform’s fault’. It’s a copout. It just proves how demoralising this system is for artists.”
Spotify, holding over 30 percent of the worldwide streaming market, recognized the problem with fake accounts in 2023.
When it eliminated tens of thousands of tracks uploaded by the AI music startup Boomy.
This occurred after Universal Music Group, its primary licensor, applied pressure.
The boutique label Wondercore Island, owned by The Sweet Enoughs, hasn’t fared well. As per Si Jay Gould, the label’s head, “Spotify waited for six weeks before taking action.” They’re attributing this to what they call a ‘mapping problem,’ suggesting that somehow four artists managed to release poor-quality AI-generated music using their name.
There’s no motivation to safeguard us. We’re experiencing identity theft, facing financial loss, and our reputation is suffering, yet the reaction is: ‘We’ve taken all possible measures.’ This underscores how minimally our work as artists is appreciated.
Despite Spotify having separated the four fake songs from the Sweet Enoughs’ profile, these tracks continue to be active under that name, poised to mislead fans searching for genuine music.
Spotify chose not to provide comments for this article. In response to queries regarding their authentication systems, a representative from Australia directed us to the comprehensive Spotify for Artists educational guides available on their website.
Gould states that the extent of this hijacking “defies human capability.” He adds, “the financial gain is minimal.” Similar to those past computer schemes siphoning tiny amounts from vast numbers of bank accounts, he believes “this must be an automated process.” Gould speculates they might be focusing on artists who perform well within the algorithms—individuals whom the system favors.
Sector metrics highlight an escalating issue. According to Deezer, 18 percent of their daily uploads at the start of 2025 consisted entirely of AI-generated content. The music generation service Mubert states that more than 100 million AI-created tracks were produced through their platform during the initial six months of 2023.
The worldwide Music Fights Fraud Alliance suggests that approximately 10 percent of all music streams globally are fraudulent, frequently caused by bots, counterfeit accounts, or click farms. Certain distributors have observed fraud levels as high as 50 percent, which could be siphoning up to $US3 billion each year away from musicians.
Currently, musicians are pushing back against these issues. Michael League, widely recognized as the frontman for the American jazz ensemble Snarky Puppy, mentions that he has gathered “multiple accounts from artists across different genres and varying degrees of public recognition who have shared stories about having AI-created music uploaded to their profiles without their permission.”
The League has informed the Recording Academy’s New York branch about the unauthorized use of his solo artist profile. He mentions that senior executive director Nick Cucci plans to take the matter further within the Grammy organization later this week.
I’ve been utterly stunned and disturbed by the number of messages I’ve gotten,”League states.”It’s akin to a quiet crisis spreading through our sector.
Hiding behind the calm exterior of The Sweet Enoughs, Paul Bender is seething. “This isn’t over; it’s getting worse,” he states angrily. “I am beyond pissed… You’re working toward a new album when all of sudden, this disgusting mess appears right in the center of your Spotify page. It’s utterly distasteful and shows complete disrespect.”
There are individuals within this sector who appear to genuinely despise musicians. This attitude borders on being cruel. To them, genuine human-created music and artificial intelligence-generated content are indistinguishable; they view everything merely as merchandise or simply as content.
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