I have no doubt that those numbers have been inflated by AI powered marketing tools, dead internet theory style.

Deezer had an analysis where they found almost all the listeners for AI music was fraud bots.

Yes it should be easy to find people in one’s immediate social circle who are listening to these tracks if they are that popular. I’ll wait…

Right. If we're not hearing these songs on the street, in a pub, etc. then it's just bots praising bots.

Time for a cross, like the New York Times bestsellers.