The Future Sound Awards – a ceremony positioning itself as the “Grammys of the AI music space” – has officially banned controversial AI band The Velvet Sundown from participating.

The project, described as “a multidisciplinary artistic project blending music, analogue aesthetics, and speculative storytelling,” recently drew attention for amassing hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners on Spotify and landing on several prominent playlists.

But what seemed like an emerging indie band was soon revealed to be something else entirely.

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After initially denying any use of generative AI, the creators behind Velvet Sundown eventually admitted that the entire project – music, vocals, and all – had been created using AI tools, specifically Suno. The move, while effective in generating buzz, has been widely criticised for its deceptive nature. And now, the organisers of the Future Sound Awards have weighed in.

In a statement, the Fanvue World AI Creator Awards, the group behind the Future Sound Awards, explains that Velvet Sundown has been disqualified for violating the award’s core principles.

“The Future Sound Awards was launched to demonstrate the ethical use of AI tools in music – and celebrate the millions of creators using these tools,” it states. “After noticing a registration through our awards platform from ‘The Velvet Sundown’ we have since proactively taken the step to ban the band from entering the awards.”

The organisation also stresses that “our belief and the mission of the awards is to promote the responsible use of AI in music – not displace artists which The Velvet Sundown is based on. This doesn’t align with our values or our submission requirements which are operated through our partner, TwoShot, and their industry-leading licensing technology to protect artists.”

The controversy highlights a growing debate in the AI music space: at what point does creative experimentation with AI cross the line into deception or exploitation? And as the industry scrambles to define its boundaries, Velvet Sundown may have just served as a cautionary tale of what not to do.

In other AI music news, Spotify has reportedly published AI-generated songs under the names of dead artists without the knowledge or consent of their estates or rights holders, according to a new investigation by 404 Media.

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