An artist named Sienna Rose seemed to have achieved what many musicians dream of: over 3.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify, with hit songs accumulating millions of plays. Her track “Into the Blue” reached 7 million listens, while “Safe with You” and “Breathe Again” each approached 3 million. But there was one significant problem: Sienna Rose appears to never have existed as a real person.
The case represents a concerning glimpse into the future of the music industry. What started as successful songs climbing Spotify’s viral charts ended with widespread recognition that an artificial intelligence program likely created both the artist and her music. The revelation came after careful observers began noticing telltale signs in videos posted to her TikTok account, which launched just weeks before the controversy erupted.
Despite her massive Spotify following, Sienna Rose’s TikTok account had only 3,000 followers when people started questioning her authenticity. The videos showed what appeared to be a young woman promoting her music with captions like “Can we normalize listening to small artists? I’m tired of people skipping our videos because we’re not trending yet.”
At first glance, the content seemed legitimate, but viewers soon spotted inconsistencies that artificial intelligence typically produces.
In one video, a necklace changed appearance when covered by a hand. The differences were subtle enough that casual scrollers might miss them, but they provided the first concrete evidence. The situation escalated when the account posted a response video attempting to address the rumors, which ironically contained the clearest proof of artificial generation. A mirror in the background lost its black trim as the figure moved, a typical glitch in AI-generated video content.
TikTok user Sean Armor shared his experience of unknowingly enjoying the music for three weeks before learning the truth. “The vocals were good. The lyrics I felt were really decent,” he explained. “I even told one of my friends about it that, oh, this is a good artist. And just yesterday evening, I found out completely AI vocals, lyrics, everything.”
The situation raised serious concerns among legitimate artists. Between late September and early December, the Sienna Rose account released 45 songs, a pace impossible for human musicians. According to reports, these tracks generated approximately £2,000 weekly in royalties, all from simply inputting prompts into AI software.
Artist Cristiana Miller expressed frustration at the situation: “That is enough to change the entire life of a real artist, of a real human being who puts in the time and the blood, sweat, and tears and the money and the effort to write and record and compose and put things on streaming platforms.”
Another musician, Tria Carl Call, highlighted the platform’s role in promoting AI content. “I’ve been in this game for over 10 years and spent tens of thousands of dollars to mix and master music,” they said. “Watching AI artists get preferential treatment from massive platforms like Spotify is literally mindnumbing.”
The Sienna Rose account topped Spotify’s Viral Top 50 three times, with the platform’s algorithm recommending the songs to countless users. Notably, Selena Gomez unknowingly promoted one track on Instagram, receiving 1.5 million likes on the post.
This mainstream exposure demonstrated how easily AI-generated content can infiltrate popular culture when quality control measures fail.
