{"id":7266,"date":"2025-12-08T17:55:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T17:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/king-gizzard-spotify-ai-knockoff\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T17:55:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T17:55:15","slug":"king-gizzard-spotify-ai-knockoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/king-gizzard-spotify-ai-knockoff\/","title":{"rendered":"King Gizzard Pulled Their Music From Spotify in Protest, and Now Spotify Is Hosting AI Knockoffs of Their Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Acclaimed Australian prog rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard joined a growing number of artists when it left Spotify in July.<\/p>\n

At the time, band leader Stu Mackenzie took aim at Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, excoriating him for investing in an AI weapons company<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been saying f*** Spotify for years,\u201d Mackenzie told the Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIn our circle of musician friends, that\u2019s what people say all the time, for all of these other reasons which are well documented.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in a technological twist, impersonators are now using generative AI to clone the band\u2019s iconic sound. A user on Reddit was recently recommended<\/a> a track on his Release Radar that was a clear knockoff of the real King Gizzard, alerting them to the scheme.<\/p>\n

The track spotted by the Reddit user, called \u201cRattlesnake,\u201d was listed under an artist with the incredibly similar name \u201cKing Lizard Wizard\u201d \u2014 which is striking, because the real King Gizzard also has a song called \u201cRattlesnake.\u201d The similarities don\u2019t end there: the fake version of the song, which is clearly AI-generated, has identical lyrics to King Gizzard\u2019s original version, along with a notably similar composition.<\/p>\n

In fact, every song uploaded by the knockoff \u201cKing Lizard\u201d artist on Spotify has the same title as an actual King Gizzard song, with its corresponding lyrics ripped straight from the source, suggesting the perpetrator fed the lyrics into an AI music generator and instructed it to copy the band\u2019s sound. A search for \u201cKing Gizzard\u201d on the platform brings up the band\u2019s abandoned official profile, with \u201cKing Lizard\u201d being recommended immediately below it. The top song result for the search is the AI band\u2019s ripped off version of \u201cRattlesnake.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that Spotify has let the knockoff band get that type of visibility on its platform \u2014 where it\u2019s accumulated tens of thousands of streams since uploading the tracks last month \u2014 is especially egregious because King Gizzard has already been targeted by impersonators on its service. As Platfomer<\/em> reported last month<\/a>, Spotify was previously overrun by another King Gizzard impersonator that uploaded \u201cmuzak\u201d versions of the band\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n

In other words, if there\u2019s one band that Spotify should be manually monitoring for AI ripoffs, it\u2019s King Gizzard, but it\u2019s clearly making no such effort. Spotify didn\u2019t reply to a request for comment, though the \u201cKing Lizard\u201d account disappeared after we initially ran this story.<\/p>\n

A screenshot of the fake band, \"King Lizard Wizard,\" on Spotify.<\/figure>\n

The fake band\u2019s album art also appears to be AI-generated, and it was live on Spotify for weeks before getting pulled down. Adding insult to injury, some of the fake tracks even list Mackenzie as the \u201ccomposer\u201d and \u201clyricist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the unsavory attempt at cashing in on a band that pointedly departed Spotify didn\u2019t sit well with many fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bad AI ripoff, from aesthetics to band name, copying their songs,\u201d wrote the Reddit user who discovered the track on their Spotify account. \u201cI find this absolutely deplorable and am now quitting my account.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident highlights how Spotify is seriously struggling with content moderation in an age increasingly being defined by a barrage of AI slop. <\/p>\n

The company announced new policies<\/a>\u00a0to protect artists against \u201cspam, impersonation, and deception\u201d in September. But given the AI imitations that are still invading Release Radar and Discover Weekly playlists, which the company prominently recommends to its users, it\u2019s clear that the company is struggling to meaningfully address the issue.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve come across previous egregious examples, like a dubious track that claimed to be performed<\/a> by Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon\u2019s 2000s side project Volcano Choir \u2014 but in reality was AI slop.<\/p>\n

While Spotify has said it will be cracking down on spam and impersonation, AI-generated music is technically allowed on the platform \u2014 some of which has even turned out to be a major hit, with an AI country song even topping a digital Billboard chart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More on Spotify:<\/strong> Spotify\u2019s Attempt to Fight AI Slop Falls on Its Face<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The post King Gizzard Pulled Their Music From Spotify in Protest, and Now Spotify Is Hosting AI Knockoffs of Their Songs<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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