Are you really a student if you’ve not done a late night study session soundtracked to an unending lo-fi beats playlist on YouTube?
According to Google Trends, searches for the term “lo-fi” on YouTube have tripled since 2020. One of the most popular channels “Lo-fi Girl” attracts tens of thousands of viewers daily with their stream “ ">lofi hip hop radio beats to relax/study to.” However, fans of the genre may be disappointed to discover that some of these lo-fi playlists on YouTube aren’t what they first appear.
In a recent video, TikTok music influencer Derrick Gee explains how he stumbled across the lo-fi channel “what is ?,” which features lo-fi jazz instrumental mixes all around an hour long. “When I looked a little deeper, I found myself trying to solve a mystery and it opened up a much larger question about the future of music,” he says in his TikTok video.
@gee_derrick Do u think its real?? #lofi #ai
♬ original sound – Derrick Gee
After listening to the channel, Gee had his suspicions that the music was created using Suno, an AI music generation tool. He pointed out that, despite the channel only launching in September this year, it has already gained over 130,000 subscribers, with its most popular video “Sip” attracting over two million views. While each of the eight mixes on the channel feature a track list, none of them credit a single artist.
In an early video posted on the channel, one user commented, “This sounds like music made by Suno.” The channel liked the comment, which some take as an admission of guilt. The channel has since blocked keywords like “AI-generated” in its comment section. (The “what is ?” channel did not respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment.)
To test his theory, Gee created a very similar playlist by prompting Suno to make a “chill lo-fi instrumental.” He then poses the larger question, “is it insulting to real art and musicians or has this genre always kind of been AI with or without the aid of Suno?”
While the comments were split, many people pointed to the impact these AI-generated playlists have on real artists. “I think we should ask if AI music should be monetized, especially when we are trying to advocate for artists to be paid fairly,” one TikTok user commented on Gee’s video. “Lofi music has been almost like AI generated for a while. same style, same loops, same songs everywhere,” another added.
The rise of generative AI music tools has led to the emergence of ">tutorials on YouTube, with some claiming potential earnings of up to $300 per day from tracks that cost as little as 16 cents to produce. Creators are only required to disclose they have used generative AI if “a viewer could easily mistake for a real person, place, scene, or event”, according to YouTube’s policy. The site also does not have a policy preventing AI-generated content from being monetized, provided it complies with the platform’s guidelines against spam, deceptive practices, and scams.
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