AI-Generated King Gizzard Knockoff Hosted on Spotify for Weeks
An AI-generated knockoff of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's music, attributed to a fake artist named 'King Lizard Wizard,' was hosted on Spotify for weeks using copies of the band's lyrics and song titles. The content accumulated tens of thousands of streams on Spotify's Release Radar and search results before being removed, highlighting gaps in the platform's AI impersonation detection systems.
What happened
An account named 'King Lizard Wizard' uploaded AI-generated songs to Spotify that copied King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's music, using identical song titles and lyrics pulled from the band's originals.
The fake artist's album remained on Spotify's Release Radar and search results for weeks, accumulating tens of thousands of streams before being discovered by a Reddit user and removed.
Reported impact
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, which had removed its music from Spotify in July in protest against CEO Daniel Ek's investments in an AI weapons company, found AI clones of their songs appearing on the platform.
The knockoff tracks appeared prominently in Spotify search results and playlists, positioning them immediately below the band's abandoned official profile.
Index analysis
Spotify's moderation policies, including a spam filter and AI disclosure requirements announced in September, failed to catch the impersonation despite the band being a repeat target of similar schemes.
The incident raises questions about the effectiveness of Spotify's stated protections against AI-generated artist impersonations.
Governance controls
Spotify stated it 'strictly prohibits any form of artist impersonation' and removed the content for violating its policies, confirming no royalties were paid.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.