The Rise of AI Impostors in Music:
When Streaming Platforms Host Ghosts
A Compliment That Wasn’t
A recent BBC article caught our eye.
On 22 August 2025, award-winning folk singer Emily Portman received a message from a fan praising her “new album” and assuring her that “English folk music is in good hands.” The problem: she hadn’t released one.
She followed the link and discovered Orca, a 10-track album uploaded under her name on Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. The songs bore uncannily familiar titles like Sprig of Thyme and Silent Hearth, and the voice was eerily close to hers. Portman later told the BBC it was “really creepy… I’ll never be able to sing that perfectly in tune. And that’s not the point. I don’t want to. I’m human.”
Not Just One Artist
Portman’s ordeal is part of a growing trend where AI-generated albums are uploaded under the names of real musicians.
Josh Kaufman, who played on Taylor Swift’s Folklore, found a track called Someone Who’s Love Me released under his name. He described it as “a Casio keyboard demo with broken English lyrics.” Other artists caught up in similar impersonations include Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), Father John Misty (J Tillman), Sam Beam (Iron & Wine), Teddy Thompson, and Jakob Dylan. Even the late country singer Blaze Foley, who died in 1989, had “AI schlock” appear on his verified artist page. All of these cases were documented in BBC News.
The Dystopian Gap
For independent artists, the consequences are severe:
- Loss of control: As of the BBC article’s publication, Portman hadn’t regained full control of her Spotify profile.
- Revenue diversion: Whoever uploads these albums collects royalties, even if minimal.
- Credibility erosion: Craig McDonald of Lost Art Records warned that AI dupes risk damaging authenticity, said, “Three chords and the truth. And this clearly wasn’t it.”
Portman herself described the experience as “the start of something pretty dystopian.”
Why Independent Artists Are Vulnerable
Superstar names often have legal teams and direct relationships with platforms, enabling swift takedowns. Independent artists face slower response times, limited legal safeguards, and higher risk of impersonation because their catalogs are less scrutinized. Spotify, for example, took three weeks to remove Orca from Portman’s page.
The Signature of Our Soul
Kaufman captured the emotional stakes when he said: “This [music] is the thing that we do, right? This is the signature of our soul.”
Music isn’t just content. It’s identity, intimacy, and vulnerability. When AI impersonates artists, it doesn’t just mimic sound; it hijacks the essence of their creative selves.
What Needs to Change
Streaming services and distributors are “working hard” to spot fraudulent uploads, often using AI themselves. The cycle, however, risks repeating if human oversight and evidentiary safeguards are absent.
This moment demands more than reactive takedowns. It requires proactive provenance:
- Audit-grade verification before uploads go live.
- Transparent metadata with verifiable proof of origin.
- Shared responsibility among platforms, distributors, and regulators.
A Human Future
Portman is now recording her first real solo album in a decade. Unlike AI slop, it will cost at least £10,000 to produce, paying musicians, producers, and promoters. She sees this as a chance to bring something genuine into the world: “I’m really looking forward to bringing some real music into the world!”
Her story underscores that the human future of music is slower, costlier, but infinitely more authentic.
The Haunting Has Begun
The rise of AI impostors is not just a technical glitch. It’s a cultural warning. If platforms don’t fortify provenance, we risk a future where ghost albums crowd out human voices. Portman’s experience shows the fight for authenticity is no longer abstract; it’s happening now on the very pages where fans expect to find the music they love.
All quotes and reporting in this post are drawn from BBC News, 22 August 2025.
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