Earlier this week, MBW reported on Aventhis, the outlaw-country “artist” whose AI-generated tracks have garnered over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

Why did MBW conclude that Aventhis is an AI invention?

Because the person credited as writer and producer on the tracks, David Vieira, appears to have admitted as much in comments on YouTube.

“[The] voice and image is created with the help of AI. The lyrics are written by me,” said the anonymous owner of Aventhis’ YouTube channel.

Now we have further corroboration about the source of Aventhis’ music.

According to an analysis by London-headquartered tech company Uhmbrella, Aventhis’ music was created with a combination of two generative AI music engines: Suno and Riffusion.

Uhmbrella, which offers catalog protection and AI detection and attribution services, says that Mercy On My Grave – Aventhis’ most-streamed track on Spotify, with more than 2.4 million listens – was 65.9% created by Riffusion, with Suno contributing 26.5%.

Aventhis’ second-biggest track, I’m A Dead Man Walkin’, with more than 400,000 streams, was 86.7% created by Suno.

Uhmbrella’s analysis shows that all 57 of the tracks on Aventhis’ three albums released in the past four months (a level of productivity that itself raises alarm bells) was majority created by one or both of these AI tools.

Uhmbrella also concluded that The Devil Inside is AI-generated. No, not the INXS hit from the 1980s, but the outlaw-country “artist” that has nearly 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

The Devil Inside’s track Dust and Thunder (800,000 streams) was 99.654% created by Suno, according to Uhmbrella’s analysis, while the track Riders of the Midnight Storm (no, not The Doors’ Riders on the Storm), with 785,000 listens, was 98.567% created by Suno.

“AI music is flooding streaming platforms at scale. Without proper detection or attribution tools, the industry has no visibility, no accountability, and no way to protect real creators.”

Drew Lemoine Belardo, Uhmbrella

“Our detection system confirms that nearly every track by Aventhis and The Devil Inside was generated using Suno, with some Riffusion influence,” Umbrella CEO Drew Lemoine Belardo told MBW.

“This isn’t a one off; AI music is flooding streaming platforms at scale. Without proper detection or attribution tools, the industry has no visibility, no accountability, and no way to protect real creators. This is why we built Uhmbrella.”

Suno, along with rival Udio, is one of the two AI music platforms that have been sued by the recording majors for their (alleged) unauthorized use of copyrighted songs to train their AI models – something they have all but admitted to in court documents, arguing their use of the songs should be seen as “fair use.”

More recently, a news report suggested that Suno and Udio are in licensing talks with the record companies that are suing them.

Riffusion is a competitor to Suno and Udio that seems to have avoided lawsuits by rights holders so far. However, in the case of Riffusion, concerns have been raised about its terms of service – which might mean that Vieira (or whoever is actually collecting the income from Aventhis’ music) might one day have their income taken by the AI company.

Concerns over ownership of Riffusion-created music

According to a report by Toolify.ai, Riffusion’s terms of service state that the tool can only be used for non-commercial purposes (in which case David Vieira, or whoever is ultimately behind Aventhis, may have violated the TOS). They also state that users of its tools grant the company an irrevocable license to the music created on the platform (in which case Vieira might one day be challenged by Riffusion over Aventhis’ tracks).

More broadly, there’s a question as to whether any rights at all can be claimed on music that has relied so heavily on AI for its creation. According to the US Copyright Office (and according to a US federal court), AI-generated art is not copyrightable.

In a paper released earlier this year, the Copyright Office made it clear that works created with the help of AI can only be copyrighted if there is “sufficient” human input into the final product.

Does writing the lyrics and having AI generate everything else – as seems to be the case with Aventhis – count as “sufficient” human input? That’s not entirely clear.

“Whether human contributions to AI-generated outputs are sufficient to constitute authorship must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis,” the Copyright Office says.

So whether or not Vieira actually owns the music of Aventhis – and whether the music of Aventhis can be owned at all – might have to be decided in a court of law, or through new legislation.

Blending the real with AI

Uhmbrella’s research has also confirmed the existence of what one might call “cyborg music” – half-human, half-machine.

Take for instance the case of Colm R. McGuinness, with 920,000 monthly Spotify listeners.

According to Uhmbrella’s analysis, McGuinness’ tracks are often a fairly even blend of real and AI-generated music.

The track One of the Martyrs (Inspired by Warhammer 40K), with 464,000 streams, is 52.42% real music and 39.99% generated by Udio.

The cover of Hozier’s Work Song is 33.1% real and 64.4% generated by Udio, says Uhmbrella.

The Copyright Office is much likelier to see this sort of blend as being “sufficiently” human for copyright protection – but what artists and the music industry will think of it could be a different story.Music Business Worldwide