“F–k AI and AI Music”: Leith Ross Responds to Manipulated Songs Uploaded on Spotify Profile

Winnipeg musician Leith Ross is the latest artist speaking out against AI music.

Yesterday (July 22), the singer-songwriter posted to their Instagram Story to let fans know about a selection of AI-generated songs that were recently uploaded to their Spotify.

---

Under the popular releases section of Ross’ artist profile is a song titled "Inside Our Yesterday.” It was reportedly uploaded to their page earlier this week and features AI-generated album art of a person standing in a wheat field. Upon scrolling through Ross's discography, there are eight more songs on their page, each featuring AI-generated faces and various artworks associated with each track.

The track is copyrighted by SM Records, which eerily resembles the name of a multinational South Korean entertainment agency, SM Entertainment Co., Ltd.

It's not clear how the distributor who uploaded these tracks was able to gain access to Ross’ profile, but their fans have caught on. In their most recent, unrelated post, one user commented: “Did your Spotify get hacked?😭,” while another said: “friend what is going on on your spotify rn.”

A spokesperson from Spotify stated that the content in question was distributed across multiple streaming platforms and was swiftly removed for violating their policies. "We have flagged the issue for the provider and are reassessing the processes by which they provide content to Spotify," they said.

In Ross’ recent story, they let fans know they were aware of the situation. "i have seen the spotify stupidness thanku for letting me know - we r getting it pulled and figuring out how it happened," they wrote, adding, "f–k AI and AI music."

As AI technology becomes more advanced and more widely adopted, cases like Ross’ have become more common.

In January, Nova Scotia artist Ian James had to debunk an AI-generated album that was added to his Spotify profile. Two months later, a New Brunswick radio station accidentally played a francophone AI-generated song. Across the border, artists such as the late country star Blaze Foley and the '80s rock band Toto have faced the falsified work on their pages.

Last year, nine Canada-based music streaming sites were taken down for streaming manipulation. IFPI, the worldwide recording industry association, and Music Canada had filed a complaint stating that the sites were selling fake streams to boost play counts. When play counts are fraudulently boosted, that reduces the revenue shares paid out to human musicians.

There's already a lot of conversation about musicians' compositions being used — with or without their consent — to train AI tools that will ultimately aim to replace them. Artists like Billie Eilish, Metro Boomin and Arkells signed a letter in 2024 urging AI developers to "cease the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists."

While the songs remain on Ross’ profile, the songwriter's actual most recent single is the title track off their forthcoming album, I Can See the Future, out September 19.