Google is in discussions with Universal Music to license artists’ melodies and voices for songs generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The music industry is trying to monetize and address the implications of new AI technology. The rise of generative AI has led to the creation of “deepfake” songs that can convincingly mimic the voices and sound of established artists without their consent. Universal Music’s general counsel, Jeffrey Harleston, has emphasized that an artist’s voice is a valuable part of their livelihood and public persona, and stealing it is wrong.
The discussions between Google and Universal Music are at an early stage, with no product launch imminent. However, the goal is to develop a tool for fans to create AI-generated tracks legitimately and pay the owners of the copyrights for it. Artists would have the choice to opt in. Warner Music, the third-largest music label, has also been talking to Google about a similar product.
The music industry sees the rise of AI-generated songs as reminiscent of the early days of YouTube when users added popular songs to their videos. It took years for the music industry to establish a system with YouTube that now pays about $2 billion a year for user-generated videos.
While some big artists are concerned that their work will be diluted by fake versions of their songs and voices, others have embraced the technology. Grimes, for example, has offered to let people use her voice in AI-generated songs and split the royalties.
Google’s possible entry into the AI-generated music space would help the company compete with rivals such as Microsoft. Google has previously released an AI-powered music software in an academic paper and an experimental tool called MusicLM. Universal Music has urged streaming platforms to prevent unauthorized scraping of their songs by AI services.
Neither Google, Universal Music, nor Warner Music have commented on the discussions.
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