An Artist's Name, Hijacked: How AI Fakes and a Copyright Claim Exposed a Broken System

Folk musician Murphy Campbell opened her Spotify profile in January to find songs she didn't put there. They were her recordings of traditional ballads, but the vocals sounded wrong. Someone had taken her YouTube performances, used AI to generate new vocal tracks, and uploaded the results to streaming platforms under her name. Analysis of one track, "Four Marys," by two separate AI detection tools suggested the vocals were synthetic.

"I was under the impression we had a few more checks in place," Campbell told The Verge. Removing the impostor tracks required persistent effort. "I became a pest," she said. Even then, the cleanup was incomplete; one fake song remains on Spotify under a different profile bearing her name, creating a confusing digital doppelgänger. "Obviously, I was thrilled by that," the real Campbell noted wryly.

Spotify is piloting a tool for artists to approve songs before they appear on their profiles, but Campbell is wary. "Every time an entity that large makes a promise like that to musicians, it seems to just not be what they made it out to be," she said.

The situation worsened. After a Rolling Stone article detailed her ordeal, a user named 'Murphy Rider' uploaded videos via the distributor Vydia to YouTube, then used them to claim copyright over the public-domain songs in Campbell's own videos. YouTube's automated Content ID system enforced the claim, telling Campbell she would now share revenue on her video for "Darling Corey," a song dating to the 1870s.

Vydia later released the claims, banned the user, and stated the incident was separate from the earlier AI fakery. A spokesperson cited a 0.02% invalidity rate on claims as exemplary, but acknowledged receiving severe backlash, including threats that forced office evacuations.

For Campbell, the episode reveals systemic flaws. The intersection of generative AI, automated distribution, and copyright enforcement creates multiple vulnerabilities. "I think it goes way deeper than we think it does," she said.

Source: The Verge