A funny thing happened to me on the way to making this playlist. I listen to my Release Radar playlist on Spotify every Friday, as I think the algorithm does a great job of identifying songs I might like while also presenting me with the newest tracks from artists I like, whether I follow them on the platform or not. One such track in November was a surprise to me, a song by Charly Bliss, who put out a tremendous album in 2024 and then hadn\u2019t released anything \u2013 or even posted to their Instagram account \u2013 in over a year. I added it to the temporary playlist I use to stash songs for the monthly ones I publish without even listening to the song first, because my default assumption with Charly Bliss was that I\u2019d probably like the song, and would just listen to it later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it came time to curate and write up the playlist, I listened to the song in full, and it didn\u2019t sound like Charly Bliss, not least because their primary vocalist is a woman, and this was sung, apparently, by a man. The song was sort of reggae-tinged, in kind of an anodyne way that sounded like nothing in specific. Since I was already suspicious, I checked Charly Bliss\u2019s social media accounts and found no mention of the song. The video is posted to a Youtube account that isn\u2019t theirs, with comments disabled. When I clicked on the artist name on Spotify, it takes me to a different page for a \u201cCharly Bliss\u201d that\u2019s not the band\u2019s verified one. Obviously, this is AI slop. I reported it to Spotify and Youtube three days ago and it\u2019s still up on both sites. We\u2019re losing this fight. Maybe it\u2019ll kill the current streaming model, which wouldn\u2019t be the worst thing given how much it has taken from artists\u2019 ability to support themselves, but maybe people won\u2019t care enough and they\u2019ll just bop along to the AI garbage instead. I don\u2019t matter in the broader music ecosystem, but I could see these lists becoming more difficult to compile and curate because I have to check everything to see what\u2019s real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, for now, I\u2019m still posting to Spotify (here\u2019s this month\u2019s playlist<\/a>) but also to Apple Music<\/a>, which I\u2019ve embedded below as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n