Ghost artists on Spotify

I am the only one to be a bit upset by the term "fake artist"?

While AI is evoked, this is not what is talked about here. The article mentions Epidemic Sound, and looking at their page, it "doesn’t currently use generative AI to create music".

It means that we are talking about real people here, there is nothing fake about them and their work, what they do takes skill and effort. That they focus on quantity over quality and are under-recognized does not make them "fake". Otherwise, I bet most of us would be called "fake engineers".

They are given fake names and identities in the platform in a deliberate intent to mislead the audience, deprive the real author of credit, and hide the real source of the work the major record labels. “Fake artist” is a generous term.

One of the producers in the article describes making the music as “brain-numbing” and “pretty much completely joyless.” The process is described as “...I just write out charts while lying on my back on the couch,” he explained. “And then once we have a critical mass, they organize a session and we play them. And it’s usually just like, one take, one take, one take, one take. You knock out like fifteen in an hour or two.”

He's not a fake musician by any means. But I think he'd accept the work he creates for this being described as fake 'art' specifically. There's no thought, meaning, or passion injected into it. It's a conveyor belt. It's based on analytics. It's soulless.

So its an office job? I know people who makes this exact music described in the article and it's part of their daily work to earn a living as music producers. Other musicians play weddings for example. It's not fake. But you don't put your serious artist name on a track like for a chill muzak stream. Music is a product that fills many categories and I salute the ones that can find ways to earn a living doing with their passion. Some of the time you do a routine and other time you follow your dream

Lots of artists use "fake" names and don't write their music. Occasionally they don't even perform it.

Mountain ranges and forests are soulless too, but they're still quite special and can be inspiring.

> we are taking about real people here

the people are indeed real (well, for now, but soon to be replaced with AI -- it's the logical next step)

what is fake is that the bios are not who those people are; it's like me putting on my bio that I went to Julliard

When people say "passion", they don't mean churning out derivative charts of the same "correct" ranges of muzak with no inner emotion or no inner story. That's not passion, and I'm pretty sure your friends who do this would agree that this is not theirs either. Instead, they'd probably point to more personal work to show you what they are actually passionate about.

What makes art beautiful isn't plucking the strings or pressing piano keys. It is the expression of ideas, a communicative art.

The artists who do this are not evil, and must make a living. I would not call them or define them as "fake". There is absolutely fake work and fake output, though.

what is an artist name, alias, etc. if not a fake name? should people be forced to put their government id name on display to be deemed real artists?

there are some genres in which making up artist names, even just for a one-off release, is almost the point and part of the fun of making music. should artists be forced to release music under one name exclusively as well?

Indeed, ghost writing/producing being so popular in the ecosystem that if a "Real-name mandate" happened over-night, much of the industry would be in shambles as people realize most superstars don't write and/or produce their own music.

they can look up credits of any given song right now and realize that literally everybody involved in music making has some sort of made up name, be they a singer, songwriter, producer, engineer, or whomever. like, spotify has a credits button. it's not really a revelation.

This guy thinks the dudes from Slipknot really dress like that.