How Soon Will AI Kill Authentic Music?

Are you vibing to “Heart on My Sleeve,” the song featuring AI-replicated vocals from Drake and The Weekend? Universal Music Group (UMG) is not. UMG, which has deals with Drake and The Weeknd, issued a strong statement after the song went viral on social media and streaming platforms. UMG said:

“ . . . the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.”

So far, music apps such as Apple Music, Spotify, TikTok, and YouTube have deleted the track amid a copyright claim by UMG.

“Heart on My Sleeve” is just the tip of the iceberg. In 2022, Tencent released more than 1,000 songs containing vocals created by AI technology that mimics the human voice. One of those tracks, “Today” became “the first song by an AI singer to be streamed over 100 million times across the internet,” according to Cussion Pang, Tencent Music Entertainment.

And Tencent is only getting warmed up. The company recently unveiled Lucy, a virtual artist. Pang described Lucy as “our first hyper-real virtual pop idol.” Lucy uses an automatically generated vocal print developed by TME Lyra Lab’s LyraSinger Engine. TME has developed other virtual artists including Xiaoqin, Shanbao, and Anko.

Where is all this headed? 

Well, I think Professor Scott Galloway recently gave us a pretty good clue when he noted that twice the population of the United States is relying on chatbots to relieve loneliness.

Virtual beings have no baggage. They don’t gain your loyalty with their art and then go full Kanye on you. They are tidy and neat. There is an entire generation emerging that feels comfortable vibing with machines.

In the not-so-distant future, I envision an AI-generated version of a human will publish a post (or more likely an AI-generated video) about a hot new trend known as “The New Authenticity.” Here’s an expert from that post: 

We’ve learned that human beings are actually writing and singing songs in their own voices again. Yes, their own flawed voices. 

Improbable as it might seem, songs written by people are beginning to land on the charts. This throwback trend apparently evokes a warm nostalgia in humans -- a longing for another time when technically flawed songs such as ‘Hey Jude,’ ‘What's Going On,’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ actually made the Billboard charts. (Yes, those rough drafts of music were considered to be polished songs.)

It’s difficult to fathom why this trend is happening. But a poll of humans reveals a longing for an emotional connection with other people, and apparently music from the past once fulfilled that need. Who knew? But is this trend just a fluke?

When asked to comment on this trend, leading AI artist M3GAN cast doubts on The New Authenticity: ‘Remember, music created by people comes with all the problematic personal baggage that humans bring to the table. There is a good reason why human-generated music was eliminated. Do we really want to return to the days when people cluttered up the landscape with their messy humanity?

There. I’ve dropped the mic.