Lucas Woodland, frontman of the Welsh post-hardcore band Holding Absence, recently made a disturbing discovery on Spotify: an AI-generated act that cites his band as an influence has more monthly listeners than their human inspiration. Holding Absence has been around for a decade; the AI “band,” Bleeding Verse, only launched on Spotify in late July. “It’s shocking, it’s disheartening, it’s insulting,” Woodland wrote on X. “Most importantly – it’s a wake up call. Oppose AI music, or bands like us stop existing.”
Bleeding Verse, which says in its Spotify bio that it uses “human lyrics, turned into songs with AI” has accumulated 897,349 monthly listeners in just two months. Holding Absence, four actual humans who have been touring the world and releasing music since 2015 (though its current incarnation with Woodland didn’t begin until the following year), currently have 847,638 monthly listeners.
The AI act doesn’t mention Holding Absence on its Spotify page, but its YouTube bio is more revealing: “Bleeding Verse is an emotional post-hardcore band crafting cinematic soundscapes and heartbreak-heavy melodies,” it reads. “Inspired by artists like Dayseeker and Holding Absence, we blend ambient textures, soaring vocals, and poetic lyricism to explore grief, identity, and healing. Lyrics from the heart. AI-assisted instrumentation and vocals.”
In recent weeks, Reddit users have mentioned that Spotify’s algorithm has recommended Bleeding Verse tracks to them, just as it promoted the now-infamous Velvet Sundown and other AI acts. “This is the first time I’ve been fooled by AI,” one Redditor wrote. “It’s getting scarily good.” Another user said that a Bleeding Verse song made them “tear up,” and that the revelation of its AI nature left them “feeling strangely betrayed. (A Spotify spokesperson did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.) Holding Absence appears to be roundly defeating their AI counterparts on other platforms: They have more than 83,000 Instagram followers, while an account claiming to represent Bleeding Verse has 1,937.
In a press conference last week, Spotify made it clear that the company has zero intention of banning the AI music that’s increasingly prevalent on the platform, and would continue to allow its algorithm to promote it, with some exceptions. “We’re not here to punish artists for using AI authentically and responsibly,” said Charlie Hellman, Spotify’s VP and global head of music product. “We hope that artists’ use of AI production tools will enable them to be more creative than ever.”
Spotify did announce plans to curtail “mass uploads, duplicates, SEO hacks, artificially short track abuse, and other forms of slop,” and to battle impersonation and fraud. They’re also rolling out a new system to help artists to identify their AI usage, and encouraging, but not mandating disclosure.
Bleeding Verse, which has been open about its nature from the start, released its first album, I Became What You Broke, on July 25, followed by several singles and an EP called The Anatomy of Hurt. Holding Absence released their most recent album, The Noble Art of Self Destruction, in 2023. Over the summer they collaborated with Halocene on the single “Bite My Tongue.”
