Social media backlash after live music venue includes AI act in emerging artist showcase

A local musician has taken to social media to voice his frustration after a live music event aimed at showcasing emerging artists included an act that used AI-generated content.

Aidan Sammut was at rehearsal with his bandmates preparing for their gig in Sydney’s inner west when they were told one of the artists on the line-up, Afro Charles, used AI-generated content in their music.

“We were like, ‘How is that going to work? What is the performance actually going to be like?'” Sammut said.

“Shock and then the shock kind of turned into disgust, I guess. Just sort of being offended at the fact that this could actually happen.”

The event called Mixed Bag, booked by music services company Good Intent, was held at Bootleggers in Kelly’s on King in Newtown on Wednesday.

Sammut was not aware the event included acts that used AI and said “it was an insult” to be on the same line-up.

“My biggest issue is that the spot that was given to the AI artist could have been given to a human band,” he told 702 ABC Sydney.

Damian Amamoo, the creator behind Afro Charles, has defended his decision to use AI in his music and said his usage is clearly stated on the musical act’s Instagram page.

“There is a post there saying … we’re a band of three, made up of two avatars or robots and a human being, ” he said.

“And the human being [Amamoo] does the live performance vocals.”

Good Intent has released a statement on social media that said they “take full responsibility” for not checking Amamoo’s social media and did not encourage the use of AI.

“Good Intent and Bootleggers have never knowingly and will never book people who use AI to generate music.”

How AI was used

Amamoo started his afro pop band late last year using AI music generator platform Suno.

Afro Charles consists of three members: Amamoo and two “virtual avatars” Mei Ling and Afro Charles, whose vocals are AI-generated.

“It’s very fast … like I could write a song and give it to you, and then it could be sung in about five or six or seven different ways.”

He saw AI as a tool to take music further, similar to drum machines or a synthesiser.

Suno allows users to condition their own voice as well as use their built-in singers.

Suno has previously been sued by various major record label companies and most recently by production music licensing library Jamendo for the training data used to power the platform, according to American publication Billboard.

Warner Music signed a licensing deal with Suno late last year after settling the copyright infringement lawsuit it launched against them in 2024.

“Nothing is 100 per cent new,” Amamoo said.

“Remember how hip-hop sampled sounds from the generation before to create new music.

“However, ultimately there are principles of fair use and IP in here as well, so guidelines that will be worked out by the courts in terms of what is fair use.”

Creativity needs to be centre

Sammut disagreed with Amamoo’s view on using AI music generators.

“I think it has a long way to go and a lot of things to address before it should be an accepted part of music-making.”

Recently, a dataset search tool created by American publication The Atlantic revealed millions of creative works have been used to train AI, among them Australian artists Kylie Minogue, Jimmy Barnes and Paul Dempsey.

Dempsey was among the group of Australian creatives who visited federal parliament this week to campaign against the uncompensated use of their work by AI.

Sammut believed human creativity needed to be at the centre of music creation.

“With drum machines, DJs and with EDM, that sort of thing, even though it is digital, it is still human creativity that is driving the work,” he said.

“To program a good drum machine pattern or whatever, you still need to understand fundamentally what it takes to create a good rhythm.”

Amamoo said he respected that others did not share his embrace of AI.

“No-one is handcuffing anyone to use AI or not to use AI … all of this is being driven by the market and the customer.”

‘Nervous’ about the future of live music

Live performances are one of the few ways emerging musicians, like Sammut, can make an income.

He is “nervous” AI performers could become more commonplace, taking away paid opportunities from artists.

“As a person who’s trying to make a career out of performing live and releasing music, it really is quite disheartening to see this become more … pushed on the music industry as sort of a cheap alternative to actually paying people,” he said.

Sammut hoped that in the future live music venues were more vigilant when booking artists to perform.

When the venue was approached by Amamdoo, they were told Afro Charles was a producer with live vocals, said Rory Summers, licensee of Kelly’s on King.

“To me that can mean a lot of things, someone on stage with a synth,” he said.

The event is designed to showcase a “mixed bag” of genres.

“As a venue, we don’t want to be the arbiter of taste,” Summers said.

“We just want to be a space for people to come and connect. Not all the music that’s played here is my cup of tea.”

Not wanting to profit from platforming an artist that uses AI, Bootleggers donated the money from the bar profits of the night to Support Act, a charity that supports those in the music industry.

Bootleggers have now changed their booking process to explicitly ask artists whether AI is used in their music.