Interesting article and begs the question when will and how often will law step in?
Last week, a viral track that used AI to create an original song using Drake and The Weeknd’s voices went viral and gained millions of listens across the internet before being taken down after a major label complained. The success of “Heart on My Sleeve” has a lot of people wondering whether it represents the looming future of music, but it looks a lot more like the present: there are hundreds of other AI songs populating across social media and streaming platforms, and an entire community online dedicated to making AI music.
These songs include both original tracks and covers, such as Rihanna singing “Cuff It” By Beyoncé, or Drake and Kanye West singing “WAP” by Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion, and rights holders are moving as fast as they can to take them down. On Saturday, a group of music producers and songwriters even released an entire album using AI-generated versions of rapper Travis Scott’s voice and other artists, called UTOP-AI. The album was taken down three hours after being released on YouTube due to a copyright claim from Warner Music Group. It was then uploaded to Soundcloud, but was quickly taken offline there.
As AI music becomes more accessible and popular, it has become the center of a cultural debate. AI creators defend the technology as a way to make music more accessible, while many music industry professionals and other critics accuse creators of copyright infringement and cultural appropriation.
A Discord server called AI Hub hosts a large community of AI music creators behind some of the most viral AI songs. This server was created on March 25 and now has over 21,000 users. AI Hub is dedicated to making and sharing AI music and teaches people how to create songs, with guides and even ready-made AI models tailored to mimic specific artists’ voices available to new creators. People can post songs they make and ask troubleshooting questions to each other.
