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A fake Drake x Weeknd collab went viral and the record label demanded the song be pulled from streaming services. Now there's talk the whole thing might have been an inside job. Whether or not that’s true, the story has huge implications for the future of music

A NEW TRACK called “Heart on My Sleeve” is making waves

Uploaded by an anonymous TikToker called @ghostwriter877, the song features AI-generated vocals that sound (a lot) like Drake and The Weeknd.

As The Verge puts it, “the song mysteriously blew up out of nowhere.” Things became “fishy” in part because the immediate legal back and forth seemed halfhearted —or calculated to garner maximum attention.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Universal Music quickly claimed copyright infringement, a claim that doesn’t make a lot of sense, because the song is an original work. Nevertheless, Universal had the track pulled from Spotify and Apple Music, though it remained on YouTube (and still was at time of writing).

ZOOM OUT: VOICE mimicking tech is not new, and neither is this use case. It’s just the first one to go properly viral

As this newsletter reported earlier this year, the DJ David Guetta did something similar with an Eminem soundalike. Guetta played it at a show, but did not release the track to the public. More recently, a music producer used similar software to clone Kanye’s voice, making it sound like he rapped lyrics that he didn’t.

LIKE IT OR not, these are just the first of many, many, many “soundalike” AI generated songs coming. They’re just too easy to make

Guetta said his Eminem track took him about an hour. The AI is just that good and fast. Which brings us back to Universal’s original copyright claim.

The reason they made it on “Heart on My Sleeve” —again, an all new track— is because Universal claims that the AI musicmaking tool wouldn’t have been able to create the new song in the first place if it hadn’t been trained on (or “ingested”) all of Drake’s and The Weeknd’s existing music, which —of course— does fall under copyright.

This is a legal conundrum. The way that generative AI works is by ingesting material that’s already out there. That practice is something that AI firms consider covered by the “fair use” exemption to copyright protection. (US copyright law allows for the fair use of copyrighted works for things like news, teaching, and research, the last of which arguably covers AI firms.)

OK, WHAT NOW?

Dan Runcie, writer of the excellent Trapital newsletter all about the business of music and hip hop, has an elegant solution to this whole convoluted legal situation: just let people go for it. People should be able to make all of the AI soundalike songs they want… as long as they pay the artists and their labels royalties.

As Trapital puts it, this whole AI soundalike situation “feels like Napster in 1999. New technology is here and the industry’s protocol is to resist.” But, Dan continues, there are some “music [industry] innovators [who] are eager to expand the pie” for everyone.

I'VE SAID IT before, and I will say it again:

I think the huge plot twist of our early-AI era is that all of these generative AI tools will end up creating more revenue streams for people than they end up taking away, because AI is maturing just as social media has moved out of its connection epoch, and into its discovery era.

In other words, anyone making anything using generative AI can now use social media platforms to find a gigantic audience of strangers.

Hang on, did you say “anyone making anything”? Don’t you have to know about music to make music?

YOU KNOW RICK Rubin, right?

In case you don’t, he's a widely celebrated, extremely experienced and successful music producer. Rubin co founded Def Jam Records in the 1980s, and later became president of Columbia Records. Over the course of his career, the man has produced hits for artists as varied as Adele, the Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Eminem, Jay Z, and many many others.

AND HE'S BEEN very well compensated for his success

Rubin is thought to have earned an astonishing US$300m from producing records over the decades. (Let that sink in for a moment.) And now think about this: by his own account, he knows nothing about music. Seriously.

“I KNOW WHAT I like and what I don’t like, and I’m decisive about what I like and what I don’t like”

That’s a quote from the man himself. He recently became a meme when a clip from the 60 Minutes interview that quote is from went viral. What made everyone groan, or lol, was watching the totally serene, bearded, long haired guru explain, with calm confidence, how he can barely play an instrument, doesn't know how to work a soundboard, and literally has no technical ability.

How then, an incredulous Anderson Cooper asked, has Rubin become one of the most successful music producers of all time? (In actuality, Cooper was more blunt: “So, what are you being paid for?”)

RUBIN'S ANSWER IS at the core of his genius —or a punchline, depending on your perspective

Eyes closed, Rubin replied: “the confidence that I have in my taste and my ability to express what I feel.”

OK, WHAT'S THE point here?

People laughed at the Rubin memes, but guess what? YOU know what you like and what you don't like, and YOU can be decisive about that too.

AI music making tools are about to unleash a hundred million Rick Rubins into the world: no musical ability, but confidence in their taste, and the ability to express what they feel (to AI music creation tools.)

I promise, some of these "bedroom Rick Rubins" are going to be good.

THEIR GOOD CREATIVE impulses, when married to the attention and discovery engine that is social media today, will mean that some many of these amateur producers will produce songs that go viral

If labels and artists are smart, they'll start the groundwork for how to license (and get paid for) the usage of real artists’ voices in soundalike AI projects, as Trapital suggests.

The irony is, far from putting Drake & co. out of business, soundalike AI tracks might net artists and labels millions, without literally having to lift a finger ever again.

More:

What’s really going on with ‘Ghostwriter’ and the AI Drake song? »»

AI Drake just set an impossible legal trap for Google »»

How the music industry can embrace AI »»

Rick Rubin says he “knows nothing about music” —but here’s why artists pay him »»

“Heart on My Sleeve” on YouTube (UPDATE: link was up at time of writing, and has now been removed) »»

Written by Jon Kallus. Any feedback? Simply reply.