Streaming platforms have been flooded with tracks generated by neural networks, but it is still possible to tell algorithmic creations from the work of human musicians by ear, infohub.kz reports.
The clearest marker of a song's artificial origin remains the vocals. Synthetic voices often sound "blurry," unnaturally stretch syllables to fit the beat and place stresses in unexpected spots. The generated voice also lacks the small human imperfections and live intonations: it usually stays monotonous throughout the entire track.
The lyrics of such compositions suffer from monotony as well — they rarely contain metaphors, images are constantly repeated, and the phrases themselves are often grammatically clumsy.
The musical structure of generated tracks is also predictable. They almost never feature key changes, expressive transitions, dynamic contrasts or unusual instruments. Because algorithms are most often trained on American pop music, most generated melodies copy the sound of popular acts such as Taylor Swift or Imagine Dragons.
If the fake cannot be identified by ear, experts advise checking the artist's profile. A complete absence of any mention of the artist online should raise suspicion: if a performer has no recordings of live performances, no social media pages and no interviews, yet regularly releases dozens of identical-sounding songs with AI-generated cover art, this is a content farm rather than a real musician.