Given the prevalence of AI-generated content in the modern age, you may have thought yourself safe if you’re a fan of country music – especially given the importance the genre’s performers put upon elements of honesty and integrity.
However, a new study has placed a couple of country performers among the highest-earning AI artists in the world.
According to Kapwing, they spearheaded a new study which sought to identify the AI-generated artists who are currently making the biggest impact on the world of music in the current age.
Utilising Songstats to "retrieve the total streams, followers, playlists and chart entries from the most popular and notable AI music artists listed on the AiMCharts database," they estimated total earnings based on Spotify stream counts and YouTube views for each artist based upon the default SocialBlade RPM midpoint (USD$2.12 per 1,000 streams) and the industry-average Spotify earning rate (USD$0.004 per stream).
Over on Spotify, the highest earner is noted to be the "1950s style" AI vocalist Enlly Blue, whose 95.2 million streams have raked in USD$381K according to the metrics used. This is followed by BOI WHAT and Xania Monet, whose 86.6 million and 83 million streams result in USD$342K and USD$332K, respectively.
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On YouTube, there's a clear winner, with nightcore remixer Cherry 葵 Nightcore bringing in an apparent USD$2m from 941m views. This is followed by a steep drop-off with producer James Baker's synth rock pseudonym Masters Of Prophecy bringing in an apparent USD$652K from 307m streams, and Chat Music drawing USD$274K from 129m streams.
Country artists aren’t absent here, of course.
On Spotify, the No. 4 spot belongs to Breaking Rust, whose 79.4m streams have brought in USD$318K. Breaking Rust already made history last year when the single Walk My Walk managed to become the first AI-generated track to top Billboard's Country Digital Song Sales chart.
Further down the list, Cain Walker sits at No. 7 with USD$165k from 41.3m streams. Both Breaking Rust and Walker also show up on the YouTube chart in the No. 5 and No. 6 spots, respectively. There, Breaking Rust's 71.7m views are estimated to have generated USD$152k, and Walker's 45.5m views equated to USD$96.7k.
Kapwing also collected a list of AI-generated artists with the most followers, too, with country act Owen James sitting in the No. 7 spot with a reported 851,000. For contrast, Breaking Rust is listed as having 379,000 followers, while Walker follows closely behind with 351,000.
Walker also hits No. 8 on the list of AI-generated acts with the most YouTube subscribers (180,000), while both Breaking Rust and Walker hit the top ten of YouTube playlists they're featured in, No. 5 (with 372 playlists) and No. 9 (261), respectively.
This may, of course, not come as a surprise to many. Just last month, Niko Moon confirmed that Nashville songwriters have been utilising AI as a way to artists a proof of concept before they agree to take on a song.
“I've been hearing that here in [Nashville] with songs that are being pitched to artists that one of the guys in the room will sing the demo, and then they'll transfer it over into Jelly Roll or Morgan [Wallen]'s voice or something,” Moon explained. “So that when they hear that song pitched to them, they're actually hearing themselves.”
“Now you can really hear yourself singing it,” he added. “So if you're an artist who's taking pitch songs, now you're really able to hear what you would sound like singing it, and probably make better choices on what songs you want to cut.”
