Is there a good way to tell if music was made with AI? (programming.dev)

submitted 6 months ago by ICastFist@programming.dev to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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I saw that Indie Gala has a royalty free music bundle for sale of this - https://www.arcade-origins.com/

Thing is, checking their site, there's no way to actually buy straight off them, which is super weird. All "covers" are AI images and every video on YT channel was posted after Jan 2025.

I don't know enough about music other than listening to it, so I have no idea what cues, if any, to look out for when it comes to AI music. I also do not want to spend a single cent buying something done with AI.

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[-] SGforce@lemmy.ca 21 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Theme 1 : 2mn00s

Theme 2 : 2mn00s

Theme 3 : 2mn00s

Theme 4 : 2mn00s

Theme 5 : 2mn00s

Theme 6 : 2mn00s

Theme 7 : 2mn00s

Theme 8 : 2mn00s

Theme 9 : 2mn00s

Theme 10 : 2mn00s

That's pretty suspect.

Also,I can't see any company info whatsoever. I would never give money to a nonexistent entity.

Here is an example of a legit music licensing company. https://www.extrememusic.com/

Notice how every song has lots of artist credits and licensing information? For example:

HEIST (FT. KXNG DOPE) (EXPLICIT) Details Publishing Lyrics Composers Dae One ASCAP: 1188044151, 33.34%

Michael Christopher Bowden ASCAP: 527364153, 33.33%

Kxng D.O.P.E. ASCAP: 820452078, 33.33% Collecting Publisher

EXTREME MUSIC CANADA INC SOCAN: 860583422, 100% Original Publisher

EXTREME MUSIC LIBRARY LTD PRS: 500879361, 100%

ISRC GBBPP2502923

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 5 points 6 months ago

Yeah, the lack of artist info, or any actual info on any of the tracks raised some suspicions in my head as well. Lack of track names was also odd, as several other music for games have some sort of title.

[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 19 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

If the artist has released 10 albums in the last month.

ETA: Also, do they have any web presence other than on streaming services, any live shows, or any other evidence of their existence?

[-] sefra1@lemmy.zip 15 points 6 months ago

AI music usually is sometimes spottable because the vocals sound auto tuned. The vocals sound very autotuned. You can also hear digital artifacts like if he had been compressed to very low bitrates or been through some heavy denoiser.

After listen to for while also, and this may be a personal thing, but my body starts rejecting it, like if I was listening to the same song 10 times even though they were different songs. It's weird and hard to explain.

[-] snoons@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 months ago

I get that rejection thing, some friends and I were listening to spotify and they shoved in their AI "music" into our playlist, and after a bit everyone was confused on wtf it was... but yeah, hard to describe it. Like it's just wrong or gross even. Like you've just touched a wet rag that's been stuck in drain pipe and for some reason it's warm.

[-] triptrapper@lemmy.world 12 points 6 months ago

This guy found that his production software had a hard time isolating the tracks, probably because the music was all generated at once, rather than track by track. I'm not smart enough to know any more detail than that.

[-] vividspecter@aussie.zone 8 points 6 months ago

I'm not sure if there's reliable ways to detect it automatically, but seeing if they have any sort of presence outside of where you are purchasing it would be a start. I'd normally say look on MusicBrainz but even if the bundle above is legit, it's not the sort of music that would end up on there I suspect as the website owner appears to be the creator and there's no obvious artist attached to it.

Anyway, that bundle seems suspect to me.

[-] some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

This is it, but I assume that, eventually, ai "music" outfits will have their own websites and merch and all that

[-] vala@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 6 months ago

If the album art is AI it's very likely the music is AI.

[-] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 months ago

There are a bunch of music artists who used to use random images for youtube thumbnails who switched to AI images when it became viable, I assume because it's more legal not to use copyrighted art without permission and because they could have more control over the image, so I think it would make sense to also look for some other indications the music itself was generated.

[-] bhamlin@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago

Does it sound like it was played with hands containing more fingers than what a normal human would have?

[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Buckethead sounds like that and he ain't AI; just hella gnar on the guitar. 🤷‍♂️

[-] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 3 points 6 months ago

Is it on vinyl?
Was the vinyl pressed before 2000?

[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 months ago

Based just on what you described, it sounds like it’s AI generated.

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

is it on YouTube? it's AI.

is it on SoundCloud? it's AI.

was it published after May 2021? it's AI.

this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026

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