What in the World - Meet Velvet Sundown - the band that doesn’t really exist

Download Meet Velvet Sundown - the band that doesn’t really exist

The Velvet Sundown have become a viral hit. The band have over a million streams on Spotify and are generating much discussion across the music community.

Except the band and its members don’t actually exist.

After weeks of speculation about whether they were real or not, the band have confirmed that they were AI. This has raised many questions about the ethics around AI and music, and whether it actually matters if an artist and their work is human or not. BBC journalist Tamzin Kraftman talks us through the story and discusses the development of AI in the music industry.

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Presenter: Iqra Farooq
Producers: Josh Jenkins and Emilia Jansson
Editor: Emily Horler

Published on Monday, 7th July 2025.

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