FlowGPT turned AI voice cloning into a commercial music identity

Mauricio Bustos had spent years uploading original rap over familiar songs from Chile, building only a modest YouTube following. In October 2023 he made “NostalgIA” by writing the lyrics, recording his own vocals, and using Kits AI voice-cloning software to make the track sound like Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber, and Daddy Yankee. Within a month it reached 500,000 TikTok views, nearly 1 million Spotify streams, and Spain's top 20.

The turning-point decision was to make the technology an artist identity, not a one-off stunt. Bustos released the work as FlowGPT, while his brother Marcelo built a robot-masked character and handled visuals and public relations. The formula opened a route around the distance between Chile and the Latin music industry's hubs, but the celebrity imitation also brought backlash from Bad Bunny and platform and legal concerns.

Bustos then chose to move FlowGPT beyond copied celebrity voices. Sonidos Inmersivos developed the avatar and helped create an original AI voice made from the brothers' vocals; Samsung commissioned an original song and invited FlowGPT to perform it live. KFC and Sprite followed, and the brothers moved to Spain for more industry connections, giving a viral experiment a commercial path and a stated goal of its own identity.

A viral song reached 500,000 TikTok views, nearly 1 million Spotify streams and Spain's top 20; original-voice brand deals with Samsung, KFC and Sprite followed.

AI removed the vocal-performance bottleneck that had kept an unsigned Chilean artist on a small audience.

A recognizable character let the project carry attention beyond one viral song.

Original lyrics, human-produced beats, and a later original voice created a path beyond celebrity imitation.

When a new tool removes a bottleneck, use it to win attention, then shift toward a distinctive product before the shortcut becomes the identity.

FlowGPT continued appearing with Spanish artists while the brothers pursued original music and commercial partnerships. The model remained exposed to unresolved voice-rights and platform-policy risk: Bad Bunny objected, and the article describes AI voice cloning as a legal gray area.