Neon Oni AI Group Hired Live Musicians for Japan Tour - ForkLog: Cryptocurrencies, AI, Singularity, Future

# Neon Oni AI Group Hires Live Musicians for Japan Tour

Originally an AI-character music group, Neon Oni will perform live concerts in Japan. NewsBytes reports this.

Source: NewsBytes. The project gained viral popularity online in 2025 after releasing its debut music video.

Now, it has over 79,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and the song Satori Sedai has over 1.2 million streams.

Initially, Neon Oni existed solely in the digital space. Its creator, known as Kage, used Suno AI to generate music and invented seven fictional members from Tokyo. He posted content featuring them on social media and sold merchandise.

The creator openly did not position the group as virtual, but as popularity grew, fans began to suspect the use of neural networks.

After revealing the truth, Kage hired real Tokyo-based musicians for live performances. In March and April 2026, the group will hold six concerts across the country.

“We decided to make the group real mainly because of the hype and the huge love from fans,” — explained the creator.

Addressing concerns that AI might lead to high unemployment, the creator stated:

“In an era where artificial intelligence is taking away jobs from everyone, this project, on the contrary, creates jobs.”

Suno CEO Apology

Suno CEO Maiki Schulman apologized for concerns that most people “don’t enjoy the process of making music.”

He made this statement in January 2025 during the 20VC podcast.

In a recent interview with Billboard, the company head admitted he regrets what he said and “would choose different words.” He explained that he was referring solely to technical barriers and the lengthy learning process. According to him, the main goal of the project is to lower the entry barrier and make track creation more accessible.

Recall that in September 2025, Suno introduced the “world’s first” generative DAW — Suno Studio, which “revolutionizes the music creation process.”