Stay Updated with the Latest Artificial Intelligence News
Sign up to receive a daily digest email of the latest news in the world of Artificial Intelligence.
Google and Universal Music are currently in discussions about licensing artists’ melodies and voices for songs created by artificial intelligence. This partnership aims to address the impact of new AI technology on the music industry and find a way to monetize it.
The rise of generative AI has led to the emergence of “deepfake” songs that can convincingly imitate the voices, lyrics, and sounds of established artists. Unsurprisingly, this has sparked concerns about copyright infringement and artistic integrity.
Universal Music’s general counsel, Jeffrey Harleston, expressed his disapproval of stealing an artist’s voice, emphasizing its value and importance. These discussions between Google and Universal Music are still in their early stages, with no immediate product launch, but the goal is to develop a legitimate tool for fans to create AI-generated tracks while compensating the copyright owners.
Warner Music, another major music label, has also been engaged in similar discussions with Google regarding a product of their own.
The music industry sees the rise of AI-generated songs as a parallel to the early days of YouTube, when users started incorporating popular songs into their videos. After years of battling over copyright issues, YouTube and the music industry established a system that now pays the industry billions of dollars annually for user-generated content.
With the increasing popularity of AI, many artists have expressed concerns about the potential dilution of their work. Some have gone as far as to condemn AI-generated tracks that mimic their voices. However, there are also artists like Grimes who have embraced the technology and offered to let their voice be used in AI-generated songs, sharing the royalties.
Robert Kyncl, the CEO of Warner Music, believes that with the right framework in place, AI can offer fans a new level of user-driven content, including cover versions and mash-ups. He emphasizes that artists should have the choice to participate or not.
For Google, developing a music product involving AI could help them compete with rivals like Microsoft, which has heavily invested in AI technology. Google has already launched its own AI products, but a music-focused offering would strengthen their position.
Earlier this year, Universal Music urged streaming platforms to prevent AI services from scraping their songs without permission or payment. They specifically requested Spotify and Apple to deny access to developers using their music catalog for AI training purposes.
Lyor Cohen, a former record label executive and head of YouTube’s music division, is reportedly involved in this project for Google.
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
