The first two are our Animal Crossing & Stardew Valley-inspired music albums, Cozy Friends, Vol. 1 & Cozy Friends, Vol. 2. The others are a couple jazz albums (Sunset Stroll, and Missed Connections). In making these, we didn’t just click a button and walk away. We refined the generations, curated the best ones, and spent hours editing them, literally removing “saliva streams” (not kidding) and weird artifacts from the Missed Connections cover. We cropped them, filtered them, and added our branding as we do on each of our releases. The funny thing? People often think our oldest artwork (2023) is AI-generated, but that’s the stuff that isn’t. The following StreamKitty releases from 2023 are all human-made vector art from Freepik:

Wherever there’s a place to credit our artwork, we’re happy to give credit to who made it or how it was made. But…. have you ever noticed that digital streaming platforms don’t provide a field
for artwork credits, or any visual aspect of a music release, in their metadata? That’s weird, isn’t it? Yes. It is. Did all the streaming platforms not consider this in the early days? In all album liner notes (vinyl, cassette, compact disc), everything is fully credited, including the art design steps and final cover. Maybe that’ll change in the future. Who knows?

It’s easy for critics to see an AI-assisted album cover or a certain aesthetic in a discography and immediately claim the music must be “hollow,” or “AI-generated slop” but that’s a false assumption. It completely ignores an artist’s creative intent.

We have received a handful of anonymous emails and YouTube comments from trolls since late 2025 accusing us of being “an AI” which is absolutely hilarious to us. To be honest, it’s ridiculous to even attempt to defend ourselves at this point. We (StreamKitty) have been around since late 2022. That’s three and a half years ago (long before AI became a household name and before “AI slop” became the catchphrase of 2025/2026). But… whatever. AI fatigue is real, man.

What’s funny, and honestly, a bit hypocritical, is that the “classic” lofi aesthetic and culture everyone loves (2016-era to 2020-ish) is actually built on a foundation of “stolen” or borrowed work.

Think about the early days of the Lofi Girl YouTube livestream. Before it was the original animation of “Jade” we see now, it was a looped clip from the 1995 Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart.

Expanding on the foundation of stolen/borrowed work:

The entire OG lofi music culture is built on 1950s/60s jazz samples pulled from vinyl records without clearance or permission, “Sad Simpsons” edits using FOX’s intellectual property, and rips of various anime cartoons. That “authentic” aesthetic people are so protective of was built on copying and re-using other people’s copyrighted work.

So, the big question is…. why is AI-assisted artwork, which involves our own original ideas, characters/scenes, curation, and hours of editing, suddenly the “bad” thing?

At least we aren’t using illegal samples in our music or using copyrighted Japanese animations. We’re creating something new to support our brand, while the “OG path” everyone points to and references was paved with endless amounts of uncleared content. If the intent is to create a consistent look/aesthetic and feel/mood for a listener, that is absolutely fair game. We respect the “found art” and “collage” roots of early lofi… it’s a vibe. It’s the vibe. But there is a massive hypocrisy if people give all of that a free pass.

(the following video was uploaded in June 2017, has millions of views, and there are hundreds of thousands just like it):

More about album art:

There are endless artists (and we mean endless) that have a large handful of AI-assisted artwork in their discography as of mid-2024, especially if they release music frequently.

They may have started out like all of us have:

1. Using their own photos / light edits (filters, font, title/artist name).
2. Downloading some cool photos from Google Images (hey, weren’t those… copyrighted?). Then…
3. Maybe some light, early AI-assisted tools for easy photoshopping (Pixlr website, etc), and now…
4. A handful of fully AI-generated or heavily AI-assisted art has snuck into their discography, and it’s obvious.

Most artwork you see that has that “infinite landscape” or “nature fantasyscape” lofi vibe is likely AI-generated or assisted. Sorry to say, but that’s real talk and it’s completely true. Even a lot of your favorite Lofi Girl / Lofi Records releases. AI art and video isn’t going away any time soon. If it helps maintain the consistent aesthetic of the brand, then so be it.

That said… all of this accusatory nonsense is one of the reasons we started uploading video shorts of us in the studio, documenting “the creative process” (working on a new track, playing guitar, etc). We honestly don’t even want to bother with any of that, but… it’s gotta be done. Rory and I prefer to work privately. Without an audience, without a lens in our face, or a camera lens at our back. Because it takes us out of the zone. But, ya gotta prove you’re human in 2026, so… that’s what we’re doing, now, over at the StreamKitty YouTube channel, and soon, on TikTok and IG, too.

On a personal note: We’ll be releasing multiple releases weekly, starting this month (May 2026). That’s about 15-25 human-made albums every month. Well over 100 albums released by the end of 2026 (why do you think we were so quiet and only released one full album and two lofi covers in 2025?!). If we were to hire a graphics designer or several different people for the consistent aesthetic we want, they might charge us anywhere from $25-400 per album cover. Let’s ballpark it less than halfway, at $80 per cover. If we only put out 15 albums a month… we’d need $1,200 every month to release music at the scale we do.

To be honest, StreamKitty is not making “bank” giving our copyright-safe music away for free, for creatives to use as they wish. We might receive micropennies every now and again from Spotify and YouTube, but it isn’t enough to pay any bills, or pay our rent or car payments. It’s barely enough to buy a small shopping cart of groceries every few months. It makes financial sense for us (at least at the time of this writing: May 2026) to use AI assistance for our artwork. Releasing that many albums (over 100) is NOT about flooding the zone or the DSPs; it’s about providing a massive, diverse music library of free-to-use music for creators, covering genres we love to make (including all genres we promised people that we’d eventually get to, in May 2023, in the r/Twitch sub over at Reddit). AI-assisted tools are the only way two independent guys with part-time jobs can manage that kind of scale without going into more debt. Using AI-assisted visual tools allow us to keep our music flowing, on a regular basis.

If and when we start making real money, we’re happy to pay digital illustrators and animators for our album artwork and videos for YouTube and the other socials. We’ve said this before and we hate having to repeat ourselves. And again… we’re giving all our music away for free, for content creators to use (yes, actual downloads ARE coming by early June).

Small request: we kindly ask everyone out there to stop automatically and instinctually using the dismissive phrase “it’s AI slop” and instead, try and take a moment to think about an artist’s creative intent and aesthetic. It’s foolish to look at stolen work (samples / cartoon edits, OG lofi culture) and consider that “fine”, and then completely dismiss AI-assisted artwork with heart and curated, creative intent.

On a thoughtful / empathetic note: it’s important to remember that humans come in all configurations. Most of us are lucky enough to have functioning symmetrical anatomy (two hands, two arms, two eyes that can see, and/or two ears that can hear and listen in stereo). Some people out there are amazing creative people, who may be differently-abled, like the ones pictured below…. or, maybe they have no hands at all (and they want to play guitar or make oil paintings), or they’re fully autistic/mute and want to make interesting short films (mute as in, they cannot speak or sing AT ALL, unlike Martin Finn) or are painfully shy or clinically agoraphobic (literally cannot go outside or socialize with others)… or they’re terrified of working with another musician for fear of judgment or what have you.

All of these people’s creativity and passion deserves to be heard and seen just as much as anyone else’s, especially if they’re brave enough to share it (even if it’s AI-assisted or fully AI-generated).

Martin Finn:

The Music Men (Portland, Oregon, 1935)

Unnamed Serbian guitarist:

and also:
– a deaf lyricist/poet using AI to make music with their own words
– a legally blind autistic person, fully mute, using AI to make digital illustrative art, or AI to make music as well. Maybe they can see a little, but blurry, or colorblind.
– in both instances, they want to just be “a presence” on social media, to share their ideas and output, because as creatives, that’s what we all love to do.

We all remember first grade, and “Show & Tell”. That’s when we learned it’s ok and normal to share things with others. Things that make us happy.

Everyone deserves the right to be creative, make art and music, and do things that make them happy, even if they need full AI assistance to do it (and for those without fully-functioning limbs and opposable thumbs, they really don’t have a choice, do they? They don’t have any of the options that most of us out there are lucky enough to have and frequently take for granted).

Keep some perspective, people. The digital world is abrasive and negative enough as it is, and the “call-out culture” in the music industry and on social media is incredibly toxic. We should all be supporting creators, and not looking for reasons to tear them down. Ever. The world itself is harsh enough for independent creators and artists, long before digital cameras even came about.

Enjoy the things you love, be grateful for art existing in the first place, and live and let live.

Here’s some simple suggestions on how to make this world better:

1. Be kind.
2. Be an ally.
3. Understand the “why” before judging the “how.”
4. Appreciate what sounds and looks good.
5. Compliment. Don’t insult.
6. Ask and listen. Don’t assume.

Be the change. It isn’t hard to be a good person.

-Chris & Rory
aka StreamKitty

photo credits:
Google Search screenshot (Martin Finn)
Getty Images (The Music Men, Portland OR 1935)
Getty Images (unnamed guitar player, Serbia)