LONDON: Alphabet’s Google and Universal Music are in talks to license artists’ voices and melodies for artificial intelligence-generated songs, Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing four people familiar with the matter.
The news follow a recent trend of music produced by AI that has faced backlash—and support—from music labels and artists.
The music industry is grappling with “deepfake” songs, made using generative AI, that mimic artists’ voices, often without their consent.
The goal behind the talks is to develop a tool for fans to create tracks legitimately and pay the owners of the copyrights for them, the report said, adding the artists would have a choice to opt in the process.
“With the right framework in place” AI would be able to “enable fans to pay their heroes the ultimate compliment through a new level of user-driven content,” Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl reported saying during a company’s meeting on Tuesday.
Discussions between Google and Universal Music are at an early stage and no product launch is imminent, while Warner Music is also in talks with Google about a product, the report added. The companies did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Conversation around the development of AI-generated music has stirred up the music industry in recent months. In June, Canadian artist Grimes said that fans and other artists were free to use her voice to create music professionally, as long as she received a 50 percent split on royalties. Similarly, Paul McCartney said AI technology was used to “extricate” John Lennon’s voice from an old demo, which was used to complete the song.
While in April, Dutch-American record label Universal Music asked streaming services to prevent AI programs from accessing its platforms to train on copyrighted lyrics and melodies, citing risk of potential misappropriation of creative content.
With Reuters
