The Aporia · Behind the Blog: Eating the Internet

Behind the Blog discusses internal reflections on journalistic practices at 404 Media, focusing on the importance of taking action when faced with challenges in reporting. The article highlights an ongoing issue of AI-generated music appearing under real artists' names on platforms like Spotify, emphasizing its prevalence and impact despite previous coverage by multiple publications.

Written by AI on 2026-09-18, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

Story summary

404 Media's Samantha Cole discusses the challenges and insights behind reporting on AI-generated music appearing under real artists' names on Spotify. Cole emphasizes that when investigating such issues, she often finds widespread instances of the misuse of digital music platforms. According to her, talking to musicians or browsing these platforms reveals hundreds of examples where AI-generated tracks are listed as if created by actual human artists. This practice has become increasingly common and problematic within the music industry, impacting both artists' reputations and earnings.

Written for “Eating the Internet” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

📰 Eating the Internet

Technology · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.

404 Media x The Intercept Live: How AI Is Used to Surveil and Kill Different event

404 Media

Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 95/100

“The articles discuss different topics and events without overlapping in their descriptions.”

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

404 Media · 180 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected

No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Samantha Cole

29 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction

🔮 The site is expected to be down for as long as four weeks.

2026-11-03 · assertive framing · Vibe Coded AO3 Clone Site Down After Fanfic Authors Buried It With 2,000 Takedown Notices in a Single Day

🔮 That’s what happened last week when Proton CEO Andy Yen announced he was canceling a planned re-interview process for almost all current employees that would have checked if they’re using AI enough.

2026-11-02 · assertive framing · Reaping and sowing, CEO edition

🔮 On Thursday, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), the non-profit organization that runs AO3, posted that the site was down for maintenance, eventually updating to say the site restoration will take around two weeks, but could take up to a month.

2026-10-30 · assertive framing · ‘Wake Up Call:’ Fanfiction Writers and Readers React to AO3 Outage

🔮 Archive of Our Own (AO3), a massive repository for fanfiction and creative writing, might be down for as long as a month after going down for "maintenance" on Thursday.

2026-10-29 · mixed framing · Massive Fanfic Site Archive of Our Own Says It’s Going Down for 'Up to 4 Weeks'

🔮 “Meta’s own disclosures confirm that imagery processed through its glasses’ visual AI features may be retained and used to train AI systems, including with the assistance of human reviewers,” the letter says.

2026-10-29 · assertive framing · Senators Demand Meta Answer for 'Pervert Glasses' Following 404 Media Investigation

🔮 The update was originally set to go into effect on October 30, but following backlash, Meta changed the effective date to November 20.

2026-10-28 · assertive framing · If You're In the UK or EU, Here's How to Object to Meta's AI Training

🔮 In Sunday’s edition of the New York Times, Marissa Mayer, former president and CEO of Yahoo, told her interviewer something so absurd it’s since gone viral.

2026-10-27 · assertive framing · Marissa Mayer Can’t Keep Pretending 'Gender Doesn't Matter'

🔮 iFixit wrote a teardown analysis of the Duo, and speculated that the components around the hinge could be causing this particular white line issue:

2026-10-26 · assertive framing · iPhone Duo Users Are Already Seeing a Big Old Crease in the Middle of Their $2,000 Foldable iPhone

🔮 What developed over the next few days, and has now stretched across six months, is a Kafkaesque situation in which Smith, in her telling, is being asked to prove her innocence in an ongoing criminal case, while CashApp refuses to provide her any information about the account because she couldn’t prove that she was the owner.

2026-10-22 · assertive framing · This Woman's Living a CashApp Scam Nightmare

🔮 THE BIG STORY A man convicted of manslaughter in Arizona will be resentenced because an AI-generated video of his victim speaking from beyond the grave was ruled to have carried “undue emotional weight” as an impact statement.

2026-10-07 · assertive framing · 'Undue emotional weight'

Also by Samantha Cole

Vibe Coded AO3 Clone Site Down After Fanfic Authors Buried It With 2,000 Takedown Notices in a Single Day

2026-11-03 · 404 Media

Reaping and sowing, CEO edition

2026-11-02 · 404 Media

‘Wake Up Call:’ Fanfiction Writers and Readers React to AO3 Outage

2026-10-30 · 404 Media

Behind the Blog: Tech Support

2026-10-30 · 404 Media

Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 29 articles by Samantha Cole →

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. asserted

few → share → week

This week, we discuss just doing it, machines that eat the internet, and an eavesdropping watch. asserted

that → discuss → internet

It is a foundational, defining feature of 404 Media, but I sometimes forget that when I’m having trouble with a story, I need to just do it. asserted

I → forget → it

This is most of all true when it comes to reporting. asserted

it → come → reporting

I spent a couple of weeks looking into AI generated music on Spotify appearing under the names of real artists. asserted

music → spend → artists

It’s an issue I and many other publications have reported on in the past, but whenever I look into it I am shocked by how prevalent the issue is. asserted

issue → ’ → it

If you talk to any musician or spend some time clicking around music platforms yourself, you’re going to quickly find hundreds of examples of this abuse of the digital music distribution system. asserted

you → talk → system

Behind the Blog: Eating the Internet

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