So there's really accurate ways to detect "pure AI". The AI music detectors out there are mainly looking out for production things:

-a flatness to the EQ spectrum that you wouldn't get out a properly mixed and produced piece of audio

-no good stem separation, so no per-source eq (relates to above point)

-change BPM mid-song

-unnatural warbles at the end of every phrase

-vocals will have these weird croaky voice cracks, or sound scratchier and raspier

There definitely are tell-tale signs of "pure AI" in audio, but it becomes a lot more nuanced when any sort of secondary mixing/mastering/compression happens (which is the case 90% is the time in the real world- anything on YouTube/Spotify get's compressed).

At least for the current AI music generators, it's pretty easy to tell by ear that it's AI generated. Everything is just a little off, especially the higher frequencies. Vocals often sound indistinct, like an unholy amalgamation of thousands of people are singing instead of a single person.

> I assume that some of the music that's showing up in my Spotify feed is AI-generated but I've never noticed.

A lot of it is now, and it's frustrating to me. The worst part is that I'm not actually anti-AI-music. There's one or two "groups" ("producers"?) I've found where it's clearly AI but they've put a lot of work into making something worth listening to, but Spotify seems to have a "this sucker will listen to the cheap stuff" flag and now I'm drowning in tracks from people who paid for Suno and think that's enough.

It's getting very hard. At this point, lyrics are the biggest giveaway. AI generated lyrics are always awful and the delivery feels very stilted.

Currently it sounds like it's been through an allpass/comb filter. Complex parts, while spectrally there, do not make much sense as a real sound. Probably audio analog of the "finger salad" of early image models. I do not count of being able to tell one from another in a few months.

AI seems to struggle to produce counterpoint, especially in vocals.

It sounds like a moral stance on its face, but honestly they probably wouldn't care if someone posted a reasonable amount of AI-generated music that was high quality enough to gain a following of listeners.

This is likely a stance to prevent an individual from producing thousands of AI generated tracks and attempting to flood the zone for anyone browsing and searching.

There's a lot of music on Spotify for example that tries to latch on to current trends in an attempt to get pulled into search results and recommendations.

One day soon many musicians will be using AI assistance, and many won't tell you for fear of judgment.

It's like that with code and art.

Purely AI anything is garbage. But AI tools in the hands of people who know what they're doing are just faster scaffolding and better plywood to build with. The framing is still mostly human expert.