Spotify has seemingly pulled the uploads of Velvet Sundown, besides booting a new album released by The Velvet Sundown.
The abrupt (but not entirely unexpected) development emerged just moments ago. As we noted this morning, The Velvet Sundown went ahead and dropped not one but two 13-track albums today, Paper Sun Rebellion and Paper Sun Rebellion II.
Evidently, that was pushing the release-volume envelope at Spotify, which is no longer displaying Paper Sun Rebellion II on the relevant profile. (The work isnt live on YouTube or Apple Music, either.) DMN reached out for comment but didnt immediately receive a response.
In fact, Spotify has opted against responding to any of our requests for comment pertaining to The Velvet Sundown. This conspicuous silence appears to be one component of a broader strategy for the DSP, which has been tight-lipped from the get-go.
Even so, The Velvet Sundown is apparently the subject of behind-the-scenes discussions; we previously highlighted a couple curious streaming hiccups, one that temporarily removed the Paper Sun Rebellion release countdown, on Spotify and other services.
Now, Spotify has kicked things into high gear, and those hiccups have become setbacks.
On top of The Velvet Sundowns missing album, the related Velvet Sundown (tied on Apple Music to The Velvet Sundown via features) has seen all its releases rendered unavailable on Spotify. Pre-pulldown, Velvet Sundown had 12,400 or so monthly listeners.
The same tracks were live this morning and, at the time of writing, remained playable on Apple Music. Also axed from Spotify: Velvet Sundown-associated Crimson Daydream (3,746 monthly listeners).
Shifting to the central questions: What exactly prompted the pulldowns? And what does the step mean for future AI releases?
Well have to wait for additional details to arrive at a concrete answer concerning the former. However, the BPI has come out in favor of AI-music tags on streaming, we reported this morning.
And given the commercial consequences of losing listeners and royalties to an endless sea of machine-made music, its safe to say there was some Velvet Sundown pushback despite an initial wave of nonchalant (or nonexistent) responses.
As for what the future holds for AI on streaming, were once again heavy on questions and light on answers. Of course, Velvet Sundowns Spotify pulldown doesnt exactly bode well for forthcoming AI releases, which may well spread out across multiple artist profiles as opposed to dropping via a small group of accounts.
Concluding on the same topic, its unclear how many AI artists are already pumping out music. But top-level evidence suggests that the web of non-human uploaders is extensive. Just in passing, besides the Velvet Sundown variations, the band has collaborated with one DJ DeathNOTE, which itself has several collaborations with different acts.
