Folk Musician Faces AI Impersonation and Copyright Challenges
In January, folk artist Murphy Campbell stumbled upon several songs on her Spotify profile that she never uploaded. These tracks, which she had recorded, featured vocals that sounded off. It didn’t take long for her to realize that someone had taken her performances from YouTube, created AI-generated covers, and uploaded them to streaming services under her name. I tested one of the songs, “Four Marys,” with two AI detection tools, and both indicated it was likely AI-generated, confirming her suspicions.
Campbell was taken aback, stating, “I was kind of under the impression that we had a little bit more checks in place before someone could just do that. But, you know, a lesson learned there.” It took her considerable effort to get the unauthorized songs removed, admitting, “I became a pest.” Even after her efforts, it wasn’t a total win; while the fake tracks seem to have vanished from YouTube Music and Apple Music, at least one still lurks on Spotify, now under a different artist profile but with the same name. “Obviously, I was thrilled by that,” the real Murphy Campbell remarked.
Spotify is currently testing a new feature that would let artists manually approve songs before they show up on their profiles, but Campbell remains doubtful after her experience. “I feel like, every time, an entity that’s that large makes a promise like that to musicians, it seems to just not be what they made it out to be, but I’ll be curious to try it out in the future,” she said.
However, this was just the start of Campbell’s troubles. On the same day a Rolling Stone article was published about her encounter with AI imitators, a series of videos were uploaded to YouTube via distributor Vydia. These videos haven’t been made public, and it’s unclear if anyone besides the uploader, who goes by Murphy Rider, has viewed them. YouTube declined to comment on the situation.
These videos were used to assert ownership over the material in several of Campbell’s videos. She received a notice from YouTube stating: “You are now sharing revenues with the copyright owners of the music detected in your video, Darling Corey.” The most perplexing aspect is that the songs at the center of these claims are all in the public domain, including the classic “In the Pines,” which has been covered by artists from Lead Belly to Nirvana (as “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”).
Vydia has since retracted those claims, and spokesperson Roy LaManna mentioned that the individual who uploaded the videos has been banned from their platform. Out of over 6,000,000 claims filed by Vydia through YouTube’s Content ID system, only 0.02 percent were deemed invalid, which LaManna claims is “by industry standards is like amazing.” He added, “we pride ourselves on doing this the right way.”
LaManna also clarified that Vydia has no ties to Timeless IR or the AI covers uploaded under Campbell’s name. While the timing raises eyebrows, he insists the two incidents are unrelated. Vydia has faced significant backlash, including “literal death threats,” prompting evacuations of their offices. Campbell isn’t letting Vydia off the hook but acknowledges that the issue isn’t solely their fault. The intersection of generative AI, music distribution, and copyright is intricate, with numerous points of failure and potential for exploitation. “I think it goes way deeper than we think it does,” Campbell reflects.
