{"id":382575,"date":"2026-04-05T03:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382575\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T03:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:00:22","slug":"folk-musician-murphy-campbell-targeted-by-ai-fakes-and-copyright-trolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382575\/","title":{"rendered":"Folk musician Murphy Campbell targeted by AI fakes and copyright trolls"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January, folk artist Murphy Campbell discovered several songs on her Spotify profile that did not belong there<\/a>. They were songs that she had recorded, but she\u2019d never uploaded them to Spotify, and something was off about the vocals.<\/p>\n

She quickly surmised that someone had pulled performances of the songs she posted to YouTube, created AI covers, and uploaded them to streaming platforms under her name. I ran one of the songs, \u201cFour Marys\u201d, through two different AI detectors, and it seemed to support her suspicions with both saying it was probably AI-generated.<\/p>\n

Campbell was shocked, \u201cI was kind of under the impression that we had a little bit more checks in place before someone could just do that. But, you know, a lesson learned there,\u201d she told The Verge. It took some time before Campbell managed to get the fake songs removed, \u201cI became a pest,\u201d she said. And even then, it wasn\u2019t a complete victory. While the offending tracks don\u2019t appear to be available on YouTube Music or Apple Music anymore, at least one can still be found on Spotify, just under a different artist profile, but with the same name. There are now multiple Murphy Campbells \u2014 \u201cObviously, I was thrilled by that,\u201d the real Murphy Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Spotify is testing a new system that would allow artists to manually approve<\/a> songs before they appear on their profile, but Campbell is skeptical after being burned. \u201cI feel like, every time, an entity that\u2019s that large makes a promise like that to musicians. It seems to just not be what they made it out to be, but I\u2019ll be curious to try it out in the future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This was just the beginning of Campbell\u2019s nightmare, however.<\/p>\n

On the day that a Rolling Stone<\/a> article was published, discussing Campbell\u2019s brush with AI imitators<\/a>, a series of videos were uploaded to YouTube through distributor Vydia<\/a>. Those videos have not been posted publicly, and it\u2019s unclear if anyone other than the uploader, who goes by Murphy Rider, has seen them. YouTube declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n

Those were used to claim ownership<\/a> of the material in several of Murphy Campbell\u2019s videos. Campbell received a notice from YouTube reading: \u201cYou are now sharing revenues with the copyright owners of the music detected in your video, Darling Corey.\u201d The most confusing part, the songs at the center of these claims are all in the public domain, including the classic \u201cIn the Pines<\/a>,\u201d which dates back to at least the 1870s and has been covered by everyone from Lead Belly<\/a> to Nirvana<\/a> (as \u201cWhere Did You Sleep Last Night\u201d).<\/p>\n

Vydia has since released those claims, and spokesperson Roy LaManna says the person who uploaded the videos has been banned from their platform. Of the over 6,000,000 claims filed by Vydia through YouTube\u2019s Content ID<\/a> system, 0.02 percent were found to be invalid, which LaManna says is, \u201cby industry standards is like amazing.\u201d Continuing, \u201cwe pride ourselves on doing this the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaManna also says that Vydia has no connection to Timeless IR or the AI covers that were uploaded to streaming platforms under Campbell\u2019s name. While the timing is certainly suspicious, LaManna says the two incidents are separate.<\/p>\n

Vydia has received a lot of blowback including, LaManna says, \u201cliteral death threats\u201d which have led to the offices being evacuated. Campbell isn\u2019t about to let Vydia off the hook, but notes that it\u2019s not solely to blame. The worlds of generative AI, music distribution, and copyright are complex with multiple points of failure and opportunities for abuse. \u201cI think it goes way deeper than we think it does,\u201d Campbell says.<\/p>\n

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