Spotify publishes AI-generated songs on deceased artists' pages without permission
AI-generated songs were uploaded to Spotify pages of deceased country musicians Blaze Foley and Guy Clark, as well as living musician Dan Berk, without permission. The music was attributed to a company called Syntax Error and flagged as likely AI-generated before being removed by Spotify for violating its Deceptive Content policy.
What happened
AI-generated tracks were uploaded to the Spotify pages of deceased country musicians Blaze Foley and Guy Clark, as well as living musician Dan Berk, without permission from the artists' estates or representatives. A track titled 'Together' was uploaded to Blaze Foley's page last week; it was accompanied by AI-generated artwork featuring a young male singer with no resemblance to Foley.
Craig McDonald, owner of Lost Art Records which distributes Foley's music and manages his Spotify page, confirmed the song appeared without authorization. McDonald stated the song sounded like 'an AI schlock bot' and was 'not anywhere near Blaze's style, at all.' The track was subsequently removed by Spotify for violating its 'Deceptive Content policy'.
The uploads were linked to a company called Syntax Error. According to 404 Media's investigation, Syntax Error also holds copyright over another AI-generated song titled 'Happened To You' that was uploaded to Guy Clark's page, and 'With You', which was uploaded under Dan Berk's name on July 14. Deepfake detection company Reality Defender confirmed all three tracks showed indicators of AI generation.
Reported impact
McDonald stated that 'It's harmful to Blaze's standing that this happened.' He emphasized that Spotify's failure to prevent such uploads was a security failure, noting that the platform could address the issue if engineers had the will to do so.
Index analysis
The incident highlights the vulnerability of artist pages on major music streaming platforms to unauthorized uploads of synthetic content. Spotify attributed blame initially to music distributor SoundOn, but retained responsibility as the platform that hosts and distributes the content.
Governance controls
Spotify stated it had a 'Deceptive Content policy' under which the track was removed. However, the policy was only enforced after the tracks were discovered and reported by media outlets, indicating a reactive rather than preventive approach to policing AI-generated content on deceased artists' pages.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.