[HN Gopher] AI singer now occupies eleven spots on iTunes single...
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AI singer now occupies eleven spots on iTunes singles chart
Author : flinner
Score : 60 points
Date : 2026-04-06 15:57 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.showbiz411.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.showbiz411.com)
| bobthepanda wrote:
| The iTunes chart primarily focuses on sales velocity, not
| streams, and so I wonder how useful that is in 2026 and how easy
| it is to game.
| patwolf wrote:
| Rick Beato had an episode about AI music where he talked about
| how easy it is to game the iTunes charts. So few people buy
| music from iTunes that it's relatively cheap to buy your way
| onto the charts.
| tripplyons wrote:
| I saw a video of guy who became an Amazon bestseller in a
| book category pretty easily by buying his own book.
| yial wrote:
| Through my professional / personal network, I know someone
| who advertises himself as being a "Best Selling Amazon
| Author in XYZ category."
|
| It is semi niche, but I did some ballpark math, and about
| 72 sales rapidly would put him in the top spot for that
| niche.
|
| That number sounds about right when he's mentioned the
| gross $ sales of his book.
| jmathai wrote:
| We've seen a steady shift in music over the past 2 decades from
| full length albums, to single hits, to artificially generated.
|
| Surely there's some gained and some lost. But coming from the era
| of buying an entire album, spending time reading the CD booklets
| and art, and listening to 10 songs which tell a larger story ----
| what's being lost really hits home.
| warkdarrior wrote:
| One can still buy artisan albums created by independent
| singers/bands. But they tend to get lost in the
| marketing/influencer noise and thus do not get worldwide
| success. As a result you have to search harder for them.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| the main article is about marketing/influencer noise
| completely replacing the artists, enacted by companies close
| to the search process
| bobthepanda wrote:
| Artists have actually been moving back to the full album with
| goodies, even in mainstream pop with Beyonce, Rosalia, RAYE,
| Charli XCX to name a few.
| BoingBoomTschak wrote:
| Does it really matter since pop albums were/are (almost?)
| always "collections of singles + fillers"?
| bobthepanda wrote:
| ah, the standard trite, reductive anti-pop cudgel.
|
| no, these days, pop albums are more frequently meant to be
| consumed in their entirety, often with full length visuals
| for each song that blend into each other in order.
|
| * the death of radio has really meant that singles are
| declining in utility, especially in our social media era
| where the songs that pop off an album are not necessarily
| the record-designated singles
|
| * the more parasocial development of pop encourages fans to
| invest more in merch and the concept of the album
|
| * like everything else in the economy trending towards more
| expensive but meaningful experiences, tours are becoming
| larger productions to experience an album intensely
|
| * in the AI era, we are now seeing artists pivot towards
| doubling down on experiences that AI cannot curate and
| provide meaning for
|
| Rosalia this year is touring with a full orchestra and RAYE
| with a full big band, because these are intentional choices
| that the pop music industry has been trending towards for a
| while. There's always going to be trite drugstore music as
| long as there are drugstores, but what is charting is not
| really that at the moment.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htQBS2Ikz6c&list=RDhtQBS2Ik
| z...
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| I feel like in those days I really didn't appreciate albums.
| Storage was a premium so I would focus on bands greatest hits
| songs vs discographies. Both in terms of my burned cd
| collections and early mp3. I didn't start getting into albums
| until terabyte hard drives were cheaper. Then I started
| pirating discographies and listening to the back catalog for
| the first time.
| afavour wrote:
| I really don't think we have. When I was growing up in the 90s
| it was the heyday of the pop single but there were still plenty
| of albums being produced and I think it's the same today.
| tempaccount5050 wrote:
| No, the game has changed. Back then, the singles were
| typically accompanied by an album, even if it was just
| filler. It's better to release singles now due to the way the
| Spotify and iTunes algos work. Best practice is now to
| release your songs one at a time rather than a full album (at
| least if you aren't an established player).
| skeeter2020 wrote:
| On one hand this pretty much destroys thematic albums (like
| classical music, prog rock, Tool or for example, something
| like Alice in Chains' Dirt), but on the other few could
| pull it off and those who can are still doing it (ex: the
| latest Opeth album). So maybe discovering new music is
| hurt, because itunes and spotify look like crowded ERs, but
| there's just as much good music out there - regardless of
| your tastes.
| afavour wrote:
| Right, there's less unnecessary dressing of an "album" of
| filler. But I don't think that's a meaningful change.
| Singles drove the market then and they do now. Albums were
| still produced then and still are now.
| mapmeld wrote:
| I think it's an AI-generated response.
| soundworlds wrote:
| I can tell you that myself (and many others) still create
| concept albums as our primary format. It's not that people
| aren't still creating it.
|
| The choice is still there for any listener that cares about
| albums as a format. I don't mean that in a negative way. I
| suspect that many people listen to both playlists of singles,
| and albums of their favourite artists, depending on mood.
| peab wrote:
| charts will become totally meaningless.
|
| Event data will be what matters most. That's how artists
| actually make their revenue these days anyways.
| leviathant wrote:
| I have no doubt that those numbers have been inflated by AI
| powered marketing tools, dead internet theory style.
| justonceokay wrote:
| Yes it should be easy to find people in one's immediate social
| circle who are listening to these tracks if they are that
| popular. I'll wait...
| podgietaru wrote:
| Time for a cross, like the New York Times bestsellers.
| HardwareLust wrote:
| I just checked Spotify, it has 368k followers and at least one
| song has over 1M streams.
| mjr00 wrote:
| This speaks more about how easy it is to buy botted vanity
| metrics on Spotify than anything.
|
| The most obvious way you can tell this is inorganic is how all
| of the "Discovered On" are artist-specific playlists: "Eddie
| Dalton music", "Best of Eddie Dalton", "Eddie Dalton Hits",
| etc. A real artist may have some artist-specific playlists but
| _generally_ their Discovered On will be more general genre
| playlists, like "Pop Hits" or "Hype" or "Gym Music" or
| whatever.
| LtWorf wrote:
| Wasn't there already some scandal with swedish criminals
| using this to launder money?
| pjmlp wrote:
| Thankfully I still buy proper music, what a sad state for human
| culture.
| futureproofd wrote:
| It's as if what William Gibson wrote about in Idoru has already
| become a reality. Soon we will see celebrity AI gossip.
| alexambarch wrote:
| "Soon" we will see celebrity AI gossip?
|
| Someone clearly missed the first season of Fruit Love
| Island[0].
|
| [0]: https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/viral/ai-fruit-love-
| isla...
| curiouser2 wrote:
| baby gronk got rizzed up by livvy?
| adzm wrote:
| Live shows are the biggest part of music anyway
| johnla wrote:
| I'll perform these songs by AI in concerts if the price is
| right. And that's how AI starts to leak out into the physical
| world. AI also hires human workers to do tasks in the real
| world using Task Rabbit and similar apps.
| techjamie wrote:
| AI music is generally not going to be copyrightable unless
| they can show genuine human creativity was involved. So if a
| song is 100% AI, you could just go around performing it or
| straight up selling copies yourself and there's nothing* they
| could do about it. Though I do wonder if a human writes the
| lyrics, but AI generates all the music parts, if it becomes
| sufficiently human for copyright. Because the lyrics at that
| point would be actual creativity.
|
| * I am not a lawyer, and this won't stop them from possibly
| trying to sue you or even winning depending on the situation.
| Or trying to prove there is human ingenuity involved. Do at
| your own peril.
| skeeter2020 wrote:
| Maybe I'm just old (definitely I'm just old) but the live music
| experience has been completely destroyed for me, between bat-
| shit-crazy high ticket prices and the absolute collapse of
| concert-goer decorum. Who would have thought that a bunch of
| high, adolescent punks in the 80s or 90s would be more
| appropriately behaved than the 35-yr-old mom pushing past only
| to stand directly in front to film the entire show over her
| head on her iPhone, with a few breaks to live-tweet her awesome
| experience on social media?
| bparsons wrote:
| Grifters figured out several years ago that the iTunes sales
| chart is extremely gameable, and can be juiced for some cheap
| headlines.
| everdrive wrote:
| It's similar pattern that we've seen previously, but exaggerated
| by modern trends and modern technology: the most popular cultural
| items will often be meaningless and base, and if you want
| something substantial you need other ways to find meaningful
| content.
| curiouser2 wrote:
| right, but at least human hands used to touch the process. even
| in 2000s copy-paste boy band era it was at least human
| everdrive wrote:
| Agreed. It's far worse now, specifically due to changes in
| technology. I didn't mean to say that "we've seen this all
| before," but instead meant something more like "given how
| human nature works, this technology will take us to a worse
| place."
| yokoprime wrote:
| iTunes? i wonder what kind of sales we're talking about here.
| people buying music is few and far between, and i wonder what
| percentage of that customer base buys their music on iTunes when
| there are great alternatives offering lossless files
| testycool wrote:
| I mostly listen to AI-generated music. 8 out of 10 of my top
| listens in the last 180 days are AI-generated.
|
| I gradually went from various genres -> mostly nerdcore -> mostly
| AI nerdcore.
|
| https://www.last.fm/user/testycool/library/tracks?from=2025-...
|
| EDIT: Updated link to the most listened songs in the past 180
| days. The songs are not generated by me.
| rafram wrote:
| Why?
| lokar wrote:
| The grift requires full commitment
| testycool wrote:
| It sounds great to me. AI-generated music is pretty popular
| with Warhammer 40k lore as well.
|
| Also I tend to listen to songs for a few days, during which
| time I feel they're the best thing ever, which also helps
| with momentum during work.
|
| After a few days I have to find other songs. Since AI music
| started getting more traction it's been way easier to find
| great songs.
|
| I understand the criticisms of AI music, but that doesn't
| take away from the fact that for me and a growing number of
| people it sounds good.
| skeeter2020 wrote:
| If you think that AI generated beige music is nerdcore, you
| don't know what you're talking about. The best is far more
| sophisticated and deeply - sarcastically - self-referential
| that I think it would be a real challenge for AI to come up
| with something both compelling and meaningful.
| testycool wrote:
| I don't have strong opinions on whether the AI music I listen
| to is nerdcore or something else. Maybe I didn't use the
| correct term.
| kjs3 wrote:
| I think you touched on the point: people who don't actually
| care about music think musical pablum is 'good', because it
| slides in their ear and out without challenging them with
| actual 'listening'. This guy even assigns a genre to his slop
| while clearly knowing (and, really, caring) nothing about
| what he claims to like listening to.
| testycool wrote:
| I do care a lot what I listen to. It takes me while to find
| songs that I like.
|
| Also I am not listening to AI generated music that I
| generate myself.
|
| These are some channels whose music I like:
| - https://www.youtube.com/@EndlessTaverns -
| https://www.youtube.com/@TheAutomaticSinger
| kbelder wrote:
| I don't like most AI music I've heard, but you shouldn't be
| voted down for expressing a preference.
|
| I do sometimes turn on ambient noise, some of it is randomized
| and musical (like '88 keys' at mynoise.net). Not AI, just
| algorithmic, but just because there's no human composer doesn't
| mean it MUST be condemned.
| cdrnsf wrote:
| This is no more art than a container of corn syrup is a proper
| meal.
| Mistletoe wrote:
| So it's perfect for the times. :(
| notatoad wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHQevuohJH8
|
| my music tastes are pretty mainstream, and this just does
| absolutely nothing for me. it's exactly what i'd expect AI music
| to sound like - completely forgettable, with nothing interesting
| about it.
|
| i'd be willing to believe that this music was legitimately
| charting if it had at least some redeeming qualities, but i can't
| imagine how this could honestly get eleven spots on the iTunes
| chart without gaming it in some way.
| setnone wrote:
| the comments are very suspicious and very scary
| actionfromafar wrote:
| If the comments are from humans, that's tragic and
| frightening.
| setnone wrote:
| frightening either way, probably part of an operation that
| makes this AI chart so high
| nearbuy wrote:
| I'd say the same thing about two thirds of the iTunes top 100.
| Different people love different songs I guess.
|
| The lyrics of the one you linked are fairly strong compared to
| other songs on the top 100 list.
| supliminal wrote:
| I've heard lots of music like this over the years. It's catchy,
| the lyrics are very relatable to the audience of people who
| like this music. It might not be your thing, but it is
| certainly enjoyed by many, and there are albums written around
| this subject. Folk/blues are made of this subject.
|
| Is it over all flat and boring? Somewhat. You can only hear the
| same thing so many times before it gets tiring.
| nwallin wrote:
| It feels... commercial. I feel like I have to read a EULA and
| hit I Agree before I can listen to that.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| I listen to _a lot_ of music of all different genres depending
| on mood, and I can honestly I don 't think anyone could peg
| this as AI just by listening to it. It's soulless and devoid of
| emotion, but so are a lot of real artists. That wouldn't even
| be so obvious if they just added some background something,
| anything, like Wall of Sound style. If I played this for anyone
| and they said "it sounds like AI", I'd confidently tell them
| they are full of shit.
| notatoad wrote:
| >honestly I don't think anyone could peg this as AI just by
| listening to it. It's soulless and devoid of emotion
|
| i agree. as far as ai slop goes, it's pretty good. it could
| be made by a human who wasn't very artistic. i'm not saying
| it's obviously AI generated, just that it's not very good
| music. but that's not because i dislike popular music - i
| think most of the hot 100 is usually pretty good, and
| contains significant artistic value even if it isn't to my
| taste.
|
| if somebody was claiming this was created by a human, i'd
| believe them but i'd have the same objection: this isn't
| going to hit 11 positions on the itunes music chart without
| gaming the chart in some way.
|
| "ai generated music creator manipulates the itunes chart to
| occupy 11 positions" is a much less interesting story than
| "ai generated music is so popular it occupies 11 spots on the
| itunes charts"
| defrost wrote:
| For a reasonable comparison to a minor hit of yore, where
| do people stand on the Flying Lizard's cover of _Money
| (that 's what I want)_?
|
| Soulless and devoid of emotion, or an inspired end run
| about the minor issue of a (self confessed) inability to
| conventionly sing.
| zingababba wrote:
| I've been making all my own music lately with suno 5.5. It's
| pretty sweet, it allows me to explore concepts in a different
| way. This sucks though. Here's hyperpop version of
| https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6097646 ->
| https://suno.com/song/516c7e52-a03e-490d-ba26-8d9a332eeea7
| HDThoreaun wrote:
| The AI comment push on that video is certainly an interesting
| look into the future. Record labels have their work cut out for
| them in this brace new world.
| deathanatos wrote:
| Pre-video ad served by YT was quite literally a scam.
|
| Which says all you need to know about where all this is headed,
| I guess.
| djmips wrote:
| This channel is not even the official channel.
| suzzer99 wrote:
| > completely forgettable, with nothing interesting about it
|
| You just described 90% of young country for decades now. I keep
| waiting for its fans to get tired of being pandered to with
| formulaic lyrics, but they seem to be an endless well.
| pickleglitch wrote:
| The top 40 has always been riddled with garbage, in my opinion,
| but at least real, human musicians were making a living from
| their art.
| imiric wrote:
| The top 40 has rarely been about "art", though. The music there
| is highly formulaic and derivative, whose creators know well
| how to produce music that appeals to the masses.
|
| The effect of this "AI" trend is that now humans with no
| musical background or experience can flood the medium, making
| it much more difficult for anyone to make a living from it,
| whether they're an artist or not.
| daemonologist wrote:
| It's interesting to me that all AI music sounds slightly sibilant
| - like someone taped a sheet of paper to the speaker or covered
| my head in dry leaves. I know no model is perfect but I'd have
| thought they'd have ironed out this problem by now, given how
| pervasive it is and how significantly it degrades the end
| product.
| AlphaAndOmega0 wrote:
| Agreed. I find that particularly annoying, and I also seem to
| find that the spatial arrangement or stereo effect is muted for
| most instruments (or the model simply doesn't use that feature
| as well as a good human musician).
| recursive wrote:
| I've noticed this too. I have a few theories about this.
| Disclosure: I know a little about audio, and very little about
| audio generative AI.
|
| First, perhaps the models are trained on relatively low-bitrate
| encodings. Just like image generations sometimes generate JPG
| artifacts, we could be hearing the known high-frequency loss of
| low data rate encodings. Another idea is that 'S' and 'T'
| sounds and similar are relatively broad-spectrum sounds. Not
| unlike white noise. That kind of sound is known to be difficult
| to encode for lossy frequency-domain encoding schemes. Perhaps
| these models work in a similar domain and are subject to
| similar constraints. Perhaps there's a balance here of low-pass
| filter vs. "warbly" sounds, and we're hearing a middle ground
| compromise.
|
| I don't know how it happens, but when I hear the "AI" sound in
| music, this is usually one of the first tells.
| smilbandit wrote:
| I dabbled with AI music for a bit with Suno. Worked out well for
| the most part, only way I'm ever going to hear music with themes
| for some of niche things I like, like Shadowrun. I threw a bunch
| of music genres at it and some were good enough that I added them
| to my normal playlist but after about 30 completed songs I had a
| hard time coming up with new stuff. As someone who has never
| tried to create music myself it was fun to play with.
| empath75 wrote:
| There are two arguments about AI art, one of them is trivially
| reducible to the "is sampling/collage art". If you are spending
| time expressing something using AI produced components then you
| are producing art, and probably the amount of time you spend
| working on it (either developing your skills or creating the
| work) roughly will correlate to how much value others see in
| it. It's no different than building a hip hop track out of drum
| loops.
|
| The second question is more interesting, which is "does raw AI
| produced artwork have any artistic value" and I am going to
| punt on the "artistic" part of that equation and answer the
| "value" part with no, and not because people might not enjoy
| it, but it falls victim to the classic "my five year old could
| so that" critique of modern art, except in this case it is
| true. Anybody can go to an AI and produce some mediocre media.
|
| Where this gets interesting again is _volume_. What AI unlocks
| is exactly that anybody can create songs, videos and images for
| _themselves_. The value of it is probably the pennies worth of
| time ajd expense they put into it, but it might he worth it for
| them to make something, be mildly amused by it and immediately
| dispose of it.
|
| You wanted some shadowrun themed music, you got it and enjoyed
| it. You made something of value only to yourself, but that
| seems okay? Multiply that times billions of people probably
| eventually people might luck into something genuinely good and
| worth sharing from time to time.
| HDThoreaun wrote:
| I think your starting definition of value is basically
| worthless. Value is not about what things cost to make, but
| what people are willing to pay for them. You reached this
| conclusion by the end of your comment, but I think it's
| important to emphasize. My friend group has created
| incredible value with suno, mostly making meme songs we
| forget about after a day, but every once in a while we create
| lasting memories that have real emotional impact. It doesnt
| matter that anyone can do that, I dont think that cheapens
| the output at all.
| scubazealous wrote:
| I searched Spotify and Apple music top 100 songs and Eddie Dalton
| is not on either. I think the majority of users do not buy
| singles on iTunes anymore so this may be an easy chart to
| manipulate. The source mentions the name of the creator in the
| second line leading me to believe this is some clever advertising
| for Dallas Little's AI.
| vor_ wrote:
| Who still buys from iTunes? This is likely bot-driven.
| storus wrote:
| I am wondering when Dr. Phoxotic makes it to the top 10...
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