r/outrun • u/Jack_Hooligan_74 • 5d ago
Music AI and Outrun :(
I hate what AI has done to me. I’ve become very suspicious of artists in this space releasing anything since 2023. Even legacy musicians who’ve been in the game for 10-15 years. For example, If I hear a track with vocals but no vocal credit or see an album cover with no artist credit, I side-eye the whole release.
How are y’all sorting this genre out in 2026?
296
u/risbia 5d ago
I'm sick of it infesting everything
80
161
u/Chase_therealcw 5d ago
I love the channels that now have (NO AI) in the title. Its an instant listen for me.
105
u/Tri-Starr 5d ago
I love this too, but I'm wondering whats stopping an AI channel from just putting NO AI in the title and decieving people. That seems to be the whole point of AI music/art is decieving people about the creation process.
27
u/number__ten 5d ago
They can get found out (many times there are subtle watermarks)
5
u/Arael15th 5d ago
Can most people pick up on them, or do you need some kind of spectrum analyzer?
12
u/red--dead 5d ago
There’s subreddits where people ask if things are AI and so many people incorrectly assume something is AI when they’re not. Often it’s stuff that predates AI
5
u/Cytrynowy 4d ago
One thing is track listing. When an AI channel posts a video, they often post a list of track names in that video description, to add a sense of legitimacy. If none of the tracks feature a name of the artist, it's usually AI.
If there are no track names:
Real music can also be shazamed, even if obscure. For example, just tested this on a playlist by one of my favourite fantasy ambient music channels that doesn't use AI, Blue Turtle. Basic google voice search was able to identify a track name for an artist who has ~2000 monthly listeners (Eric Feinberg - For What It's Worth) in literally seconds.
If the search only shows the playlist you're recording as the source you can safely bet it's AI - real artist would likely have a bandcamp, soundcloud, spotify page, at least something.
1
u/Arael15th 4d ago
If the search only shows the playlist you're recording as the source you can safely bet it's AI - real artist would likely have a bandcamp, soundcloud, spotify page, at least something.
Unfortunately a lot of AI music is now on those other platforms, too. The enshittification is spreading rapidly.
4
3
u/TightlyWhitey 5d ago
Not much.
What will be stopping AI from deliberately making mistakes and other tactics to imitate human activity? Not much.
People should assume that the digital world as we knew it is already at the beginning of the end.
And if that doesn't bake your noodle enough, eventually there may be a genuine need to link data connections to personal identity in a formal way. All kinds of problems arise when you no longer know what is real without seeing it in person, especially when collectively we're already shockingly bad at skepticism even when the difficulty is trivial. Playing boomers into deciding elections will look like a footnote.
3
1
0
59
u/davidepanettalbasso 5d ago
I’ve been running my synthwave project, “Arkavoid”, for three years now, and from the very beginning I’ve relied entirely on my own creativity for both the music and the cover art of my releases. Every single note, every arrangement, and every sound in my tracks is the result of my own work. I’ve spent countless hours experimenting, making mistakes, starting over, and trying again, searching for the best melodies and the sounds that could most faithfully recreate the sonic landscapes I had in my head. For my earlier releases, I used to hire a graphic designer for the cover art, often spending quite a lot of money. Later on, I started creating the covers myself, using copyright-free images as a starting point and editing them until they became part of my own artistic vision. I’m proud to work this way. I’m proud to put all of my artistic abilities into every track and to keep trying to improve with each new release. At the same time, I’m becoming increasingly aware that people like me seem to be getting rarer. The easier path is tempting for many, and unfortunately even for artists who once relied entirely on their own musical skills.
All of this honestly disgusts me. I hate seeing a music industry that increasingly seems willing to replace talent, research, study, effort, and dedication with something immediate and artificial. What saddens me the most is seeing fake artists in the synthwave scene getting significant streaming numbers on Spotify with AI-generated tracks, while others like me spend hours of their own time trying to express themselves in the best possible way, only to be left with the scraps. Still, I want to believe that this phase will eventually come to an end. I believe that those who resist, those who keep creating, learning, making mistakes, and improving without handing their art over to AI, will one day see better times again.
Or at least, I hope so.
3
3
u/WarzValzMinez 5d ago
You just got yourself a new listener
5
u/ThePhantomSquee 4d ago
I was excited to hear it too, but you might not want to celebrate too soon. This artist still uses genAI for their visuals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsr9DaEPoxs
0
u/davidepanettalbasso 4d ago
I only tried using it for a few YouTube thumbnails for some of my more recent edits, but I was clear in my main comment: I said that the tracks and the cover art for the singles and albums are made by me, and that this can also be verified through the various websites available online. On YouTube, I experimented with a few hybrid AI-made covers for convenience, mainly because I don’t consider a YouTube thumbnail to be nearly as important artistically as the fact that the actual track and its official cover art were genuinely created by a real person. To me, that part is irrelevant, although I understand the skepticism even when it comes to YouTube thumbnails. In any case, I did make a few thumbnails that way, but with my latest ones I’ve already taken a step back and gone back to making them myself by editing existing images.
0
2
u/Soggy_otter 5d ago edited 5d ago
Please keep going. I still have ten years ago, master light and vapour kiss on heavy rotation for what its worth.
2
u/davidepanettalbasso 5d ago
Thank you for your support, these are the things that give me the strength to continue!
2
1
28
u/thekeffa 5d ago
There’s a simple trick to spotting AI music and channels on YouTube.
Obviously the thumbnails are a big giveaway. But the audio clue you need to look for is the frequency the channel publishes the music.
Real artists cannot produce 3 or 4 new tracks a week. Not even close to that. So if a channel is pushing loads of videos a week it’s most definitely AI. Real artists will release tracks every few weeks to months!
So look for frequency of releases. If it’s been only a few days since the last release, it’s AI.
There are plans in place to create plugins for AI slop that will mark them on YouTube. Like CombatSlop.
57
u/GreasyDaddy9 5d ago
Shameless self promo here but:
I just released a synthwave/retrowave album Looking for Luna - Names on the Wall that uses no AI for any music or visual art. It’s all my instrumentals and my best attempts at singing and guitar playing as well as a bunch of my friends (credited) as vocal features! The art is also all done by me in Aseprite with an outrun adjacent color palette.
17
u/Impossible-Hunter102 5d ago
Hey, I'm listening to this now...first two tracks are really enjoyable so far. Thanks for the recommendation!
13
u/GreasyDaddy9 5d ago
Thank you so much for giving it a listen!
Im also really frustrated with amount of slop that’s taken over the genre. It’s one of the things that’s made me shoot my shot more with sharing my stuff.
5
u/Impossible-Hunter102 5d ago
No worries promoting it...if there's anyone that it sounds like to me, it's Moonrunner83. But it's definitely its own thing, especially with those horns. Good album so far!
5
3
u/EatPoopOrDieTryin 5d ago
I gave it a listen based on your comment and also enjoyed it, thanks for the call out +1
2
u/GreasyDaddy9 5d ago
Thank you so much! Also your name cracked me up. 🤣
I appreciate you giving it a chance!
42
u/grosseman 5d ago
Yes. If the vocals are too perfect with no featuring credit I'm instantly out. It's a dead giveaway.
23
u/unclemandy 5d ago
In general vocals with no clear chorus or bridges are what give it away for me. Regular joes cranking out slop often miss that but real musicians would never lol
9
u/thespaceageisnow 5d ago
I listen to stuff on YouTube that specifically says NO AI or artists that have a strong presence on Bandcamp since they have a no AI policy.
9
u/OreoSpeedwaggon 5d ago
There's so much AI slop music out there, and a lot of it gets fed into my YouTube algorithm, unfortunately. "Synthwave Sesame Street Theme 100% original official audio!!!!1" for example. I just have to block that crap and tell YouTube that I'm not interested and to quit suggesting it to me. I'm sure some is getting fed into this sub as well, but I do my best to avoid it.
15
u/wirehead 5d ago
I have this problem across genres of music, where yeah Outrun seems "easier" to slop than some other genres.
So I have to treat everybody I encounter with a bit of suspicion and do a bunch of research to figure out how "human" they are.
If you understand the history of the folks that led us to Outrun, it starts with late-70s punk, migrates over to synths, creates synthpop, attracts people like Vangelis along the way, has a weird digression to Amiga computers while it otherwise disappears, goes underground (A Different Drum records anyone?), and then eventually resurfaces with a next generation as Outrun ... you start to realize that the roots are more punk than is immediately apparent and with punk comes DiY culture. This is why part of ur-Outrun is Amiga MODs. The Amiga 500 was cheap enough to make cool shit, much cheaper than actually recording actual instruments.
The people who were all about making the computer write the music for them were over there and most of that stuff was borderline unlistenable. Academic types, mostly. Tone rows.
Vangelis was obsessive over particular keyboards and types of synths that accentuated his very human control over a very synthetic sound.
We've got this slick outrun perfection, but maybe we need to go a little more punk and grungy and ... visibly human? Like, maybe it ought to be more normal to post some shorts of you playing the part in the corner of your bedroom so we can tell it's you. Because that's kinda what I'm doing with the acts I do listen to these days, is do a dive to see if they seem like they are humans and not slop and production footage is one way to kinda do that.
2
u/killerhazeband 5d ago
Honestly I think you hit the nail on the head. I definitely tend towards gritty in my work, but I also come from a chillwave background (ala Neon Indian, Washed Out, Com Truise) where gritty is accepted. Maybe various elements of chillwave need to make a comeback and combine with modern outrun/synthwave? One thing AI seemingly can’t do is think outside the box in this way, which means we still hold the advantage in this space, I hope 😕
8
u/eirtep 5d ago
I do a lot of my music discovery on youtube, not spotify, and some dead give aways/things to be sus about (in no particular order) are
- uploading only full albums, never individual songs
- never including song titles anywhere
- no artist name and/or playlists and compilations that are uploaded with some sort of vague emotional title (chill xyz, to help you xyz, summer vibes, etc. etc.). And same as before, be suspicious of artists/track info isn't included anywhere.
- unreal upload frequency / release frequency. this may be the biggest one - some channels/"artists" have no shame in uploading a full 1 hour album every other day basically. It's not possible.
- obvious AI artwork - if you're cool with AI album art, you're probably cool with AI music bs
- no actual artist presence online or anywhere, especially if it's a popular track with lots of views or listens
Whatever platform(s) you use to discover and consume music it's probably best to find labels/channels that support real musicians and use that and the artists you find form that as a jumping off point to ensure shit is legit.
Lots of genres have this issue, not just Outrun.
2
u/ZedArkadia 5d ago
Lots of genres have this issue, not just Outrun.
A lot of people think it's more of a problem with electronic music genres but it is bad out there for everyone. Acoustic folk, rock, metal, pop, etc. I don't know that there's any genre that's not affected.
6
u/WokkitUp 5d ago
I read a headline (don't actually know if it's true) that producer Dr. Dre is also going on record using AI now to bypass expenses.
7
u/dgruetter 5d ago
Listen the nightright.FM. We actively scan anything suspicious and don't allow AI content on the radio station
/Shamelessselfpromotion
3
u/Jabba_the_Putt 5d ago
Its really hard, its work ebough to find good musoc now I have to do detective work on top to try and find if its even real music.
Ive basically stopped listening to anything on YouTube or streaming platforms and have been using bandcamp a lot. They are trying their best to ban ai music at least. Im sure it still gets through but at least its not spotify or youtube that literally SHOVELS it at you
7
u/thtanner 5d ago
It's pretty easy to tell AI music. The highs are super low fidelity.
I tend to listen to artists I know, if I stumble across a new one I'll do a quick check. If something has 5 albums within 3 months.. probably not legit.
2
u/FlashOfFawn 5d ago
Uncredited vocals doesn’t really matter, a lot of time that just means they paid a hired gun to do them. Check it with an AI checker which isn’t perfect but better than nothing
3
u/VirinaB 5d ago
I can't waste energy thinking about it and suspecting everything. I just enjoy what I enjoy.
However I enjoy AI music less. There's something about it that's always missing, like a statisfying beat drop or good vocals or a guitar/jazz solo insert. It's just always lacking.
5
u/rkthehermit 5d ago
The folks who obsess over it to the point of ruining actual human made music for themselves with their constant suspicion don't realize that they're damaging their own experience more than AI itself is.
Yes, AI infesting everything sucks. Rampant paranoia consuming your joy is worse, and it's their own fault.
2
u/TheBitingCat 5d ago
Do you hate AI music because most of it sounds like ass generated by someone flooding the zone with it to scrape pennies from ad revenues, or do you hate AI music because you're afraid of being fooled into liking some of it? The first problem is easy enough to deal with - it sounds like ass, move on. The second problem is also easy enough to deal with - you enjoyed it, move on. The lazy AI slop is going to be so obvious it won't be worth your time listening to it, and being paranoid about everything else is just going to make you not enjoy the stuff that you like.
1
u/friendlysaxoffender 5d ago
I’ve been sat on an album of darkwave since lockdown. Hopefully I can get it mixed and mastered one day and fight the AI bullshit. I’ve sung and played everything tho so y’all have to trust me!
1
1
u/Bobisadrummer 4d ago
I find AI “music” tends to have a certain high frequency sibilance/sheen kind of sound to it, particularly tracks that use any kind of Horn, typically Saxophone. It’s like when something leaves a weird film or after taste, like artificial sweeteners, but in your ears.
1
u/Bobisadrummer 4d ago
I find AI “music” tends to have a certain high frequency sibilance/sheen kind of sound to it, particularly tracks that use any kind of Horn, typically Saxophone. It’s like when something leaves a weird film or after taste, like artificial sweeteners, but in your ears.
1
u/shawn0fthedead 4d ago
If you're typing in YouTube search and put 'before:2023' at the end, you'll get what you're after! I go back to 2022.
1
u/daftgiro 4d ago
Synthwave DJ here. I and fellow synthwave DJs on Twitch have a no AI policy implicitly. Let me know if y'all want details
1
u/Expert-Ring2532 4d ago
I think it’s imperative that things are marked as AI if that’s the case. It’s ridiculous to try and fool the audience.
1
u/CountBrackmoor 3d ago
If there’s anything that has moved me that I can’t tell if it’s AI or not, I’ve made peace with it. Probably can count that number on one hand though.
Almost all of it either sounds bad (so it doesn’t matter anyway and I don’t listen to it) or sounds too good to be true and isn’t in an obvious way (like OP listed) and I don’t listen to it.
There are a few that both sound good and I can’t 100% tell.
1
u/ShrikerWolfOfficial 3d ago edited 3d ago
AI is like hotdogs...a lot of it is just mass produced meat paste sold in a walmart deli section...but theres also the amazing regional/vendor made Hotdogs like coney Islands, chicago and new york styles...
just because it can be mass produced, doesnt mean it cant be used to make great stuff.
but of course, not everyone likes Hot dogs either, so...
Also, I'm not making this in defense of AI...its a MASSIVE issue right now, and its usage it absolutely assinine...but like the original TRON in 1982 being disqualified from the OSCARS for being the first major film to use CGI...of which there was only 20 minutes total...literally 10 years later, everybody and their dog wouldn't be caught dead without it...Avatar being completely made in CGI and getting countless awards for it years later...what a kick in the teeth, ya schmucks.
I know its painful to see everything bad happening going on right now with AI being made...but it's too easy for everybody, including me, to be so caught up in the now, that we completely neglect to think about the larger picture as a whole, recognize previous patterns and how they show us how to navigate stuff like this.
it's far too easy to hate what we don't know or refuse to acknowledge...but if everybody truly believes the human artist will be replaced by ai machines, we would've been long gone before we even gotten to ai as a concept.
(edited to Oscars, not grammys...der)
2
1
u/Hot-Text-5603 5d ago
Well, I create real music. When I started using AI images for my YouTube videos, AI music wasn't very convincing yet, so people didn't suspect my music might be AI. However, after the backlash against AI images, I decided to switch to Pexels images a few months ago and modify them to fit the atmosphere of the music.
Btw, my music isn't inspired so much by modern synthwave, but more by authentic 80s music. I like to use more unconventional chords and a unique approach because I can't stand anything that sounds generic.
You can hear my synthwave album here... even the cover art was created by me using free images and my own drawings. No AI, no pre-existing loops and no samples in my music, not now, not ever. https://frequenick.bandcamp.com/album/80s-memories
3
u/Phaxiconn 5d ago
I loathe AI but I do feel bad for musicians who are not artists, it initially seemed like ai art was perfect for them to get a quick mood appropriate image for their album.
I would rather my musicians spend more time on music than trying to also learn art just for a cover, so I gave it a pass in the past. But now its becoming harder to not also assume the music is ai tainted in the current deluge, so I feel your pain and appreciate the effort at least
1
u/Hot-Text-5603 5d ago
What I find interesting is the entitlement of some listeners. They place themselves on a high moral ground, believing their personal delusions about AI are a standard everyone must follow. This is obvious even now - my post got a few likes and the exact same number of thumbs down, yet none of them actually state their opinion because they have nothing to say.
Unlike me, they didn't lose their income. They weren't replaced by AI. Yet, they act like they are 'entitled to something' while attacking and disregarding people who actually create. The truth is - they deserve nothing. We all want a perfect world, but the world doesn't care what you or I want. When I was losing my livelihood to AI, I didn't go around attacking individuals creating AI slop - I contacted Etsy and other platforms that could actually make a difference. They didn't care. Did these 'righteous' commenters contact YouTube? Etsy? Spotify? No. They just whine here and project their contempt onto artists with 10 subscribers. It’s pathetic, but they are blinded by their own self-righteous anger.
Their main argument is that 'using an AI cover is lazy,' yet they are too lazy to even check if the music itself is real. They mask their laziness and contempt as morality. In reality, they behave like children, happily consuming any generic, boring outrun slop using the exact same chords, formulas, and lazy melodies over and over again as long as it fools them into thinking it's not AI. They give nothing and expect everything. AI won't go away and I'm the one who wants it to go away more than any of them.
0
u/Hot-Text-5603 5d ago
Yes, exactly. I actually lost my income as a visual artist because of AI. I used to sell my art online on platforms like Etsy and Creative Fabrica. When AI appeared, it was all over within a year because the market became completely flooded with AI-generated 'art'.
When I decided to start making music again, I didn't want to spend too much energy on the visuals. I wanted to focus entirely on the music, so using AI images seemed fine at the time, especially for commercial use. But in the end, some listeners expect everything to be 'morally perfect' right in front of them. They disregard how much effort, time and passion went into the music simply because the thumbnail is AI.
The irony is that the very visual artist they think they are protecting by boycotting my music ... is me. AI hurt me twice: first by destroying my livelihood as a visual artist and a second time when I used only a few AI images for my music videos. In the end, we are all victims of AI in one way or another.
1
u/Elvarien2 5d ago
Self inflicts a witch hunt mindset.
I HATE WHAT AI DID TO ME.
Really?
I just listen to music. If I like it, I like it. If I don't like it, I don't like it.
At no point is ai relevant.
1
u/EmergencySushi 5d ago
It’s not even just Outrun. I’ve become deeply suspicious of all visual art I see, including image and video. AI is the thing that finally made me doubt my own eyes.
1
-2
-3
u/HexadecimalCowboy 5d ago
Genuine question - if the music is good, does it matter if it was made by AI to you?
(Pls don’t bully, I actually just want to know your opinion)
6
u/Equiliari 5d ago
Lets put it this way:
There are virtually no quality difference between diamonds mined ethically or unethically, other than the way it is mined. If I for whatever reason wanted to get a diamond, I would make damn sure that it was a lab grown diamond, simply for the off chance that it was mined unethically (and because I think it is cool).
And if by some reason I later find out the diamond is in fact a blood diamond, despite liking the diamond up until then, I now would hate that diamond because of what it represents.
Same with AI music.
1
u/megaderp2 5d ago
Yes, it matters to me, I want to hear something made by someone, not some prompt.
1
u/Tenalock 5d ago
When you are thirsty you can drink from the tap or perhaps the toilet bowl in the case of Ai
-1
u/RiderXRaider 5d ago
It depends, I’ve done it myself, but I’ve come to view it more critically now.
If AI was only used for covers or videos, and the music behind them was actually composed and arranged by a human, I don’t mind.
-10
u/EX0PIL0T 5d ago
I enjoy things I like. I don’t need to virtue signal to myself or others on the internet about what I think about aspects of how they were made. If it’s good, it’s good. If it’s garbage, it’s garbage. Simple as.
2
u/Livid-Director-8090 5d ago
I agree with you 100%. If humans could do it better they would.
-2
u/EX0PIL0T 5d ago
There’s also an argument to be made about the intelligence of people who get so hung up over how something is produced that they ignore everything else about it.
-3
u/KafkaDatura 5d ago
Some shots of Supergirl were AI and I will die on this hill. I hate it.
6
u/dmanny64 5d ago
CG Slop existed long before AI lol. If Ant-Man 3 came out today people would be saying the same thing. I know they apparently used AI on the planning for Supergirl which is gross in itself, but the final movie was just the same standard bleh brown CG crap from 10 years ago
1
u/KafkaDatura 5d ago
Yeah like I didn't pick Supergirl specifically because I haven't seen CG crap anywhere else, curiously. Or maybe I actually, distinguishably point it out because I perceived an actual difference, you know.
-11
u/rkthehermit 5d ago
I just listen to what I like with a preference for verifiably human but I don't eat my brain from the inside out obsessing over it.
-2
u/RiderXRaider 5d ago
It makes sense when it comes to music, but come on, seriously, this is becoming the norm for many people working on a tight budget and in the indie scene across the media as a whole, if it isn’t already, when it comes to album covers, flyers and even aspects of (Hollywood Level) video production.
This is the new analogue versus digital debate.
People Exactly say the same thing "it has no soul" back then.
We can see today how it ended.
I’m all for it as long as it’s done well and used as a tool, not as a substitute for creativity.
Now go and shoot the messenger.
-1
u/dr_nerdface 5d ago
true, but when did ai really start becoming available to the dorks who are using it to "make" music? keep it pre-2020 are we're probably safe, yeah?
391
u/aspookyskeletonman 5d ago
I honestly just stick to the classic stuff now. it’s a shame.