AI slop tops Billboard and Spotify charts

Synthetic music, often referred to as “AI slop,” has achieved unprecedented success on major streaming and sales platforms, with three different artificially generated tracks topping charts this week, all composed entirely without human involvement.

The AI-generated songs, which include a pair of country hits and a Dutch anti-refugee anthem, highlight the rapid saturation of synthetic music across platforms including Spotify and Billboard.

The outfit Breaking Rust topped Spotify’s influential “Viral 50” songs list in the US with its track, Walk My Walk, and also featured in the top five globally with Livin’ on Borrowed Time. Days later, a Dutch song, We Say No, No, No to an Asylum Center, took the top position in Spotify’s global version of the viral chart.

The country track, Walk My Walk, has led Billboard’s “Country Digital Song Sales” chart for three consecutive weeks, which measures downloads and digital purchases.

These three songs are part of a flood of AI-generated music that is now saturating streaming platforms. A study published by the streaming app Deezer estimates that 50,000 AI-generated songs are uploaded to its platform every single day, accounting for 34% of all music submitted.

Ed Newton-Rex, a musician and founder of a non-profit focused on fair data training for generative AI companies, points to sheer volume as the reason for the ascent of these synthetic tracks. “What you have here is 50,000 tracks a day that are competing with human musicians,” he said.

The quality of this music is also no longer a barrier. As part of its study, Deezer surveyed 9,000 people and found that 97% could not distinguish between AI-generated music and human-written music. “There’s no denying it. I think it’s fair to say you can’t distinguish the best AI music from human-composed music now,” Newton-Rex confirmed.

The controversy around the Dutch song intensified after it disappeared from Spotify and YouTube. The song’s creator, JW “Broken Veteran,” who declined to give his real name, claimed he saw AI as “just another tool for expression, particularly valuable for people like me who have something to say but lack traditional musical training,” arguing the technology has “democratized music creation.”

The rights owners reportedly removed the track, though the creator denied knowing why.