“Through My Soul,” an AI-generated track credited to a fake persona, racked up more than 11 million YouTube views—prompting Adrian Younge of Jazz Is Dead to record a fully human version with his band. The move now anchors a campaign, Played by Humans, built ar
For Adrian Younge, something about “Through My Soul” felt wrong the moment he heard it. The Los Angeles-based Jazz Is Dead co-founder had a simple reaction that wouldn’t let go: the track sounded constructed rather than performed. stitched together from influences that didn’t quite belong to a real take.
The song had already gathered momentum. “Through My Soul” has racked up over 11 million YouTube views and millions of streams worldwide. But the credited artist is Enlly Blue—a persona that doesn’t appear to correspond to a real human. It’s been described as a fake profile, complete with six full albums and no person behind the music.
Younge’s response wasn’t to condemn the track and walk away. He did the opposite. He brought his Midnight Hour band and vocalist Loren Oden into the studio and recorded a fully human version. He asked the musicians to go big—bold enough to feel alive, not like something assembled and polished into place. Then they took it on the road.
They performed it live at the Lodge Room in L.A., and Younge says “something clicked.” His point landed in the room: a song written by a machine and performed by a machine has no soul, but with real musicians behind it, it finally meant something.
That conviction became practical. Younge liked what he heard enough to add the cover to his touring setlist.
The human version is now more than a musical detour. It’s the centerpiece of a campaign called Played by Humans, created with ad agency TBWAChiatDay LA. The idea is straightforward: artists and labels can upload their music to a tool that checks AI audio fingerprints. Tracks that pass receive a certifiable stamp for public display—designed to sit alongside familiar content labels. like the kind used for explicit material.
The campaign’s backers point to how fast the problem is growing. The tool has already scanned over 1.6 million tracks. Deezer’s figures add pressure to the debate: 44% of all music uploaded to streaming platforms daily is now AI-generated, and 97% of listeners cannot tell the difference.
Spotify is moving in parallel, but in a way that makes the contradiction hard to miss. In April, Spotify launched a Verified by Spotify badge meant to help listeners identify human artists. Then in May. it struck a deal with Universal Music Group to let Premium subscribers create AI-generated covers and remixes of real songs for an extra fee. Spotify says participating artists will collect royalties on anything made from their work.
Played by Humans positions itself differently. It isn’t framed as anti-AI, but as a focus on analysis—because listeners deserve to know what they’re actually hearing. The campaign’s logic is that certainty should be visible, not hidden behind streaming algorithms.
Over on the enforcement side, Sony has also developed technology intended to identify original songs hidden inside AI-generated music, aimed at sniffing out plagiarism.
In Younge’s version of the story, the stakes aren’t abstract. They arrive with a track that has tens of millions of listens and a name that turns out to be a cover with no human behind it—and then a band walking onstage to prove what a real performance can still do.
AI music jazz is dead Adrian Younge Loren Oden Played by Humans TBWAChiatDay LA audio fingerprinting Spotify Verified by Spotify AI covers and remixes Universal Music Group Sony AI detection Enlly Blue Through My Soul
11 million views and it was AI?? wild.
I mean… if people like it, let them like it. Sounds like the label just wanted better marketing with the whole “human set” thing.
So is Enlly Blue like a real singer or not? Cuz it says fake persona but also like 6 albums?? That just sounds like a ghost artist to me, like how some labels do stage names.
“No soul” is kinda dramatic lol. I feel like the AI one could still be written by a person somewhere. Also TBWAChiatDay is involved so I’m sure there’s money behind it, like a campaign to make everybody feel good about real jazz musicians doing jazz stuff. Not saying it’s bad, just saying the article makes it sound like AI can’t ever be “real,” which… come on.