Steve Lukather has confirmed that a new song titled “Name This Night” appearing on Toto’s Spotify profile is not actually by the band and was generated using artificial intelligence. Ultimate Classic Rock reported this development.
The guitarist expressed his surprise and concern about the unauthorized AI-generated track appearing on the streaming platform.
“I am surprised Spotify let this on,” Lukather said. “There is not much we can do but catch them and have it taken down. It is shameless now.”
Lukather also voiced concerns about the broader implications of AI technology for the music industry.
“It will be worse if, say, they take our entire catalog and then AI makes a new Toto record that sounds really close to us but is not,” he continued.
The incident highlights growing concerns among musicians about AI-generated content being distributed without authorization on major streaming platforms.
This case reflects a broader pattern of AI-generated music appearing on streaming services without artist consent. It raises questions about platform oversight and content verification.
Consequence of Sound revealed that Spotify has recently faced criticism for allowing similar AI-generated songs to appear on official pages of deceased artists. This included a track called “Together” on late country singer Blaze Foley’s profile. The platform eventually removed the unauthorized content for violating Spotify’s “Deceptive Content policy.” This highlighted ongoing struggles with AI content verification.
Descript found that Spotify permits some AI-generated content. However, it explicitly prohibits music that impersonates artists without permission. CEO Daniel Ek has confirmed that AI tools enhancing audio quality are allowed. Deepfake-like AI music that directly copies or mimics artists’ styles is banned.
The rise of AI-generated music has created significant concerns about artist compensation and ethical issues in the industry. TS2 Space documented that many AI models have been trained on real artists’ work without permission or payment. Some musicians compare this to stealing their labor.
WDET observed that AI-created “fake artists” with no real members or history have quietly amassed hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners on Spotify. They benefit from streaming royalties while human creators face competition from these ghost bands. This trend risks flooding the market with low-cost AI music and undermining payouts to real musicians.
The blurry line between AI content inspired by artists and direct impersonation presents ongoing challenges for enforcement and intellectual property protection on streaming platforms. Toto’s recent experience with unauthorized AI-generated content demonstrates this challenge.
