{"id":149943,"date":"2026-03-02T18:31:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/149943\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T18:31:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:31:35","slug":"clout-chasing-edm-djs-faking-co-signs-via-crowd-videos-spark-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/149943\/","title":{"rendered":"Clout-Chasing EDM DJs Faking Co-Signs Via Crowd Videos Spark Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDance music has had a rough go of it in recent months \u2014 from clubs shuttering en masse<\/a> to event cancellations due to goon-squad invasions<\/a> of American cities. Now, a new test of the DJ ecosystem has reared its insidious head: the clout deepfake.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis disturbing trend has taken on a couple of forms \u2014 so far. The first is the simplest: namely, fledgling dance producers have been hijacking footage of big-name DJs playing to jumping crowds, overdubbing their own music onto it, sharing it to their socials, claiming clout that doesn\u2019t actually exist, and fooling fans and potentially even record labels in the process.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt bubbled to the surface in early January, when Alex Pall of the Chainsmokers<\/a> posted a note on LinkedIn<\/a> that set off a fusillade of responses. He called the trend \u201ckind of genius, kind of dishonest, but just really interesting to watch play out.\u201d Pall continued: \u201c[T]o the average viewer, it feels like the song \u2026 [is] blowing up, getting played out, building momentum. But it\u2019s not real \u2026 It\u2019s just someone pasting their song over a clip and letting the internet fill in the rest \u2026 And the wild part is how well it works \u2026 If it\u2019s that easy to fake momentum, then what does \u2018support\u2019 even mean anymore?\u201d (Pall declined Rolling Stone\u2019s request for further comment.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIf that weren\u2019t bad enough, the clout deepfake has been upped to another level. On Facebook on Feb. 11, deadmau5<\/a> wrote a note in his typically no-holds-barred style that said, in part: \u201cWELL, IT HAPPENED. [sic] Woke up to some idiot DJ\u2019s Instagram story \u2026 that depicted me standing there promoting him and his music. FULLY AI generated, voice wasn\u2019t quite 100% but pretty damn convincing \u2026 I\u2019m sure we\u2019re all going to be seeing much more of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReached on tour in South America, deadmau5<\/a> confirmed that the producer behind this AI double (whom he declined to name) was previously unknown to him: \u201cHe was a fan that came out of the woodwork.\u201d He tells Rolling Stone that it\u2019s the first time this has happened to him or anyone else he knows, but adds: \u201cI wasn\u2019t immediately\u00a0aware but this is all not surprising.\u00a0The\u00a0technology is moving fast and people are jumping on the bandwagon. This was someone faking me \u2026 We need to be in control of our own faces, voices, music, output \u2014 what have you. Protections are necessary now more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tTo that end, Dina Lapolt, deadmau5\u2019s lawyer, is working on a bipartisan bill \u2014 cosigned by Senators Blackburn, Coons, Tillis, and Klobuchar and Representatives Salazar, Dean, Moran, and Balint \u2014 dubbed the NO FAKES Act of 2025<\/a> (it stands for Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an email to Rolling Stone, Lapolt says the bill \u201cwould create a new intellectual property right in your voice and likeness \u2014 with real statutory protections, just like copyright and trademark. This isn\u2019t just about celebrities. From athletes and entertainers to journalists to everyday Americans, deepfakes and voice clones can wreck careers, scam families, distort public discourse, and leave a trail of exploitation, humiliation, and real emotional harm across the internet. It\u2019s time the law caught up with the technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the technology keeps running away with the law. According to some seasoned onlookers, this type of thing has become almost inevitable \u2014 and reflective of larger changes in the music business in general, but around EDM in particular.<\/p>\n

\n\tLawrence Jones of Mutual Friends<\/a>, a U.K. management company, has watched the changes up close. \u201cWhen I first started, which is about 2015, vertical video did not exist,\u201d says Jones. \u201cIt was still horizontal.\u201d Jones worked for a management company that got results by arranging interviews with online publications. Video, as he describes it, \u201cwas a kind of peppering on the top.\u201d Today, Jones says, video is \u201c80 percent of it, compared to maybe 15 to 20 percent of it beforehand. It quite literally has flipped on its head.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tThat change of promotion is part and parcel with the way EDM has shifted gears over the years. In the mid-2010s, there was a major-label gold rush on, with some companies signing artists not only to release albums and singles, but also to produce and remix other artists on the roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat situation has changed entirely, according to Martin Kandja Kabamba, who runs the agency NOAB London<\/a>. \u201cWhen I first started working in music in London, every single one of the artists that I was working with was on a major deal,\u201d he says. \u201cNow, of the 16 artists that I work with, only two of them are in a major deal. Majors aren\u2019t signing electronic music like they were previously. If they do, they\u2019ll sign one single.\u201d And dance singles can be advertised simply and cheaply, with a single eye-catching Instagram or TikTok video.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut an album rollout is costly and seeing an ever-decreasing return on investment. Last year, an artist on Kabamba\u2019s roster released an album on their own label. At the end of the cycle, Kabamba recalls, \u201cThey were like, \u2018Well, the album thing was fun last year. But it wasn\u2019t really particularly profitable for us, and we could have just released a string of singles, and not have to deal with the bigger aspect of building the album.\u2019 So, I think even people who have the opportunity to build albums are also moving away from it, because the singles economy is way more profitable, because of how music is consumed on social media. They don\u2019t need to have a social team on for a whole year to help build the digital presence and community of that artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith one-shot signings now the norm, and with the traditional talent departments that nurtured acts for the majors basically evaporated, the onus is on the new artist to get noticed any way they can.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe amount of record labels that I know that are signing songs purely based on the fact that there is a reaction to it in a clip \u2014 that\u2019s probably the number-one way of signing dance music at the moment,\u201d Kabamba says. \u201cIf that really is taking the place of artist development, then we have a problem. Obviously, we\u2019re going to have the symptom of that \u2014 people using clips in this way in order to try and game the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd how much visibility would a newcomer artist have to garner before the majors even came knocking? \u201cTen million views-plus, for someone to actually notice that you\u2019re doing something,\u201d says Kabamba. \u201cAnything under that on social [media] is like a drop in the ocean.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHence all these fake co-signs of late. But can we hope that this sort of thing is an aberration \u2014 the work of kids who simply haven\u2019t been shown the ropes yet?\u00a0Not likely, according to Kabamba. \u201cIn many ways,\u201d he says, \u201cthese are the ropes.\u201d<\/p>\n