A singer whose music tops the Christian and Gospel album charts is not one of us. He’s an AI-generated “singer” named Solomon Ray.
Solomon’s songs entered iTunes’ Top 100 Christian and Gospel albums chart recently. He has released 2 Christmas albums, A Soulful Christmas and Faithful Soul, which have generated millions of streams.
Solomon has 48,000 followers, 360,000 monthly listeners, and 2.6M combined streams. Billboard ranks the AI singer 6th on the Hot Gospel Songs chart.
An Instagram caption reads: “Solomon Ray is no longer ‘the AI experiment’. He is now the biggest new voice in gospel music – period…”
However, Instagram followers are outraged that Solomon Ray is not a living, breathing being like us.
One person commented: “Screwing over human artists so humans can pay to hear a robot’s feelings about God. No thanks.”
Another person wrote, “Sooo who shows up to perform at concerts? A holographic image of this made-up person?”
A third person commented: “I’d rather listen to a real human with real work and emotion put into their art, called music. This is not authentic.”
A human musician, also named Solomon Ray, spoke out against using AI singers rather than real artists. The real Solomon Ray said it’s clear that AI is just ripping off the vocals of real singers.
“There’s something in the high end of the vocals that gives it away,” he said, according to Christianity Today. “And the creative choices sound like AI. It’s so precise that it’s clear no creative choices are really being made.”
Gospel singer Solomon Ray is the 2nd Black AI-generated artist to debut on the music charts. It’s no coincidence that he’s Black. The music industry knows that Black people are the most willing to accept something radically new.
Other races and ethnicities are suspicious of the music industry’s motives and are not as willing to accept change as something good for them.
AI-generated artist Xania Monet is also Black and has made waves with her emotional music.
Xania’s creator, Telisa “Nikki” Jones signed a $3 million record deal for Xania after a bidding war. Xania is the first AI artist to debut on a Billboard radio chart with her song “How Was I Supposed to Know.”
“AI music is no longer a fantasy or niche curiosity among internet sleuths. It’s here, and it’s already beginning to have an impact on Billboard’s charts,” Billboard said.
Billboard added, “It’s become increasingly difficult to tell who or what is powered by AI — and to what extent.”
