Photo Credit: YouTube
Lo-fi chill music got its start going viral with the Lofi Girl channels, but now there are thousands of imitators offering a similar sound. Just how many of those imitators feature real musicians on their channel, though?
TikTok music influencer Derrick Gee has questions about the lo-fi channel “what is ?” that plays lo-fi jazz instrumental mixes. All of the videos uploaded to the channel are about an hour long and the only link present in the profile is a Link Tree to all of the channel’s major DSP playlists.
“When I looked a little deeper, I found myself trying to solve a mystery and it opened up a much larger question about the future of music,” Gee tells viewers in his video. Gee presents evidence that the channel may be entirely AI, with whoever is behind it using Suno to generate the sound in the videos.
Despite only launching in September 2024, the account has over 130,000 subscribers. The most popular video is “sip” and has attracted over two million views. The mixes released on the channel feature a track list, but none of those credit a single artist. Compare that to the Odysseus channel, which curates music mixes and creates a comprehensive track listing and artist credit (with links to the artists’ Bandcamp where possible).
Gee says in one of the earlier videos posted on the channel, a comment read “this sounds like music made by Suno.” The creator of the channel liked the comment, which Gee suggests may mean the content is AI generated. So far, the channel seems to have scrubbed mentions of any comment inquiring if the music is AI generated.
Using Suno, Gee was able to create a similar sounding lo-fi mix by feeding the keywords “chill lo-fi instrumental” into the genAI engine. While part of the appeal of lo-fi music is repetitive beats and rhythms while doing other activities—many artists work hard to create these tracks that go into mixes. YouTube has no policy against monetizing AI-generated content, so the trend towards lo-fi AI-gen music is probably just beginning.
Judging by the prevalence of YouTube tutorials on how to generate lo-fi music using several genAI tools—the scene may soon become flooded by these channels. YouTube only requires creators to disclose the use of AI if the viewer could “easily mistake [the content] for a real person, place, scene, or event.”