AI-generated songs mimicking folk singer Murphy Campbell’s voice and style appeared on her Spotify page without her permission.

Campbell, a North Carolina-based folk musician who records old Appalachian ballads, said fans first alerted her to unfamiliar versions of her songs  “The Four Marys” and “Cuba” that had surfaced under her name on Spotify. 

The songs were tracks she had previously performed on YouTube, but this time they had been altered by AI to mimic her voice and instruments. 

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Campbell said the fake songs sounded like “this computer mimicking my voice” while attempting to play the banjo and dulcimer “really poorly.”

She said her vocals had been deepened and Auto-Tuned into what she described as a “bro-country singer.”

Campbell said after hearing the songs “I laughed for a long time, and then I was hard to be around for a few days because I was so frustrated. It feels so out of your hands. At the end of the day, there was a human somewhere that had to prompt the AI.”

According to Campbell’s Instagram reel, Vydia, the distributor behind the fake tracks, later filed copyright claims against her original YouTube videos used to create the AI versions.

The claims temporarily diverted earnings from her content, even though the videos showed her performing in her own backyard. 

The singer described the experience as being in a “weird limbo” where she was “telling robots to take down music robots made.”

According to Campbell, Vydia had withdrawn all of the copyright claims after the issue gained attention online. 

She thanked supporters for amplifying the story but said she did not support threats of violence against anyone involved. 

She also clarified that none of the videos on her official YouTube channel, Murphy Campbell, were AI-generated, after some viewers suggested her page be taken down.

The incident comes after Spotify announced its Artiste Profile Protection, a beta feature that allows musicians to review and approve eligible releases before they appear on their profile pages.

The streaming company said the tool is aimed at reducing cases of wrong releases,  and malicious uploads, problems that have become more frequent with the rise of easy-to-produce AI songs. 

Only releases approved by the artiste will appear on their page, contribute towards their streaming statistics and be recommended to listeners.

Spotify said the move gives artistes more control over what is published under their names.

In March, president of Sony Music’s global digital business, Dennis Kooker, warned that fake tracks can damage an artiste’s reputation.

Sony said it has identified about 135,000 deepfake songs so far, including roughly 60,000 discovered since March 2025 alone, adding that the number likely represents only a fraction of the fake content uploaded across streaming platforms.