Song of the AI

One of the more viral songs of this year, “Heart on My Sleeve” sounded like a collaboration between two well-known rap artists. But that, as Rahul Matthan writes, wasn’t the reason the song went viral.

“That success was entirely down to the fact that even though the vocals on the track were unmistakably those of the two artists in question, neither of them had actually performed on it. Instead, the entire song had been generated using an artificial intelligence (AI) software that had been trained on voice samples of the two artists”

 

AI thus raised new questions, yet again:

“If a song becomes a hit because of the fame of artists who sing it, are those artists not entitled to a share of its profits? After all, it is their voices that listeners are coming to hear. But does anyone have the right to be paid royalties if they do not actually put in any work to sing the song?”

 

Already, there are some musicians who are willing to embrace the change.

“(A musician named Grimes) said that she would have no problem with anyone using her voice to create an AI-generated song so long as they are willing to split 50% of all revenues they make on the song with her for the privilege of using her voice.”

And:

“Avant-garde musician Holly Herndon has taken the idea one step further. She has built an AI model of her voice and allowed anyone to use it for their own art. To facilitate this, she is releasing an AI tool called Holly+, using which anyone can upload polyphonic audio data and receive a download of that music sung back to them by an AI clone of her voice.”

 

Matthan ends with:

“Purists will—as they always have—resist this change, looking to amend the law to protect what they see as their creative right. But this technology is here to stay, and even if older artists resist, the newer generations will embrace it willingly. The new avenues of creativity and collaboration that this opens up will come to define the future of music.”