HOLDING ABSENCE’s LUCAS WOODLAND Calls Out AI Band After Being Overtaken on Spotify: “Oppose AI Music, Or Bands Like Us Stop Existing”

Holding Absence frontman Lucas Woodland has publicly blasted an AI-assisted band for allegedly modeling their sound on his group — and overtaking them in Spotify monthly listeners in the space of just two months.

Taking to social media last night, Woodland wrote (as captured by The PRP): “So, an AI ‘band’ who cite us as an influence (ie, it’s modelled off our music) have just overtaken us on Spotify, in only TWO months. It’s shocking, it’s disheartening, it’s insulting – most importantly – it’s a wake up call. Oppose AI music, or bands like us stop existing.”

While Woodland stopped short of naming names, speculation quickly centered on Bleeding Verse — an AI-assisted act who describe their output as “AI-assisted vocals and instrumentation.” The band currently boast 897,349 monthly Spotify listeners, compared to Holding Absence‘s 847,638 at the time of writing. Bleeding Verse‘s breakout track If You Loved Me Then has already been streamed more than 2.6 million times. Listen to that right here.

In follow-up posts shared on October 1, Woodland urged fans and the wider industry to demand transparency from streaming platforms: “What can we do? – I believe we can only lobby for transparency now. Those artists should have ‘AI’ on their Spotify artwork, so that playlists can’t sneak them onto playlists. Otherwise, violently support real music. Buy merch. Attend shows. That’s the most we can do for now.”

He also hit back at suggestions that Holding Absence should simply “make better music” to compete: “‘Make better music’ was my favourite take btw. These models are LITERALLY TRAINED OFF MY BAND lmao. And then releasing songs at a pace physically impossible to replicate. Chess robots have been beating human world champions for 30 years now. ‘Get good’ is a petulant opinion.”

And yeah – Spotify is “taking a stand” against AI music, but not really.