Folk artist Murphy Campbell hit by AI deepfakes, copyright troll
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- Murphy Campbell discovered AI-generated covers of her recordings on Spotify in January, uploaded under her name without consent, and only managed removal after becoming, in her words, "a pest"
- After removal, at least one AI-generated track reappeared on Spotify under a different artist profile also called "Murphy Campbell," creating multiple fake versions of the same folk artist
- Vydia, a YouTube music distributor, filed copyright claims through Content ID against Campbell's own videos of public domain songs including "In the Pines" (dating to the 1870s) and "Darling Corey," forcing Campbell to share revenue on her own material
- The fraudulent claims were uploaded the same day a Rolling Stone article about Campbell's AI-imitation problem was published, though Vydia spokesperson Roy LaManna says the two incidents are unrelated
- Vydia claims only 0.02% of its 6,000,000+ Content ID claims were ever found invalid, calling that rate "amazing by industry standards," while LaManna says the uploader behind Campbell's claims has been banned
- The fallout included "literal death threats" against Vydia, leading the company to evacuate its offices, and Campbell's conclusion that "it goes way deeper than we think it does" across AI, distribution, and copyright systems
- Spotify is testing a manual artist-approval system for profile uploads, but Campbell remains skeptical, saying large platforms' promises to musicians "seem to just not be what they made it out to be"
Why it matters: The same small folk artist was hit twice in one news cycle — first by AI impersonation exploiting streaming-platform gaps, then by a Content ID system that granted copyright claims on songs in the public domain for over 150 years. Vydia's 0.02% invalid-claim rate sounds defensible, but in Campbell's case it cost her revenue on her own performances, showing how automated IP systems can be weaponized against individual creators who lack the resources to fight back.
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