YouTube lets you create your own AI-generated music that sounds a hell of a lot like top pop artists—with their permission.
Announced Thursday, the Google-owned video streaming platform allows creators to generate unique “Dream Tracks” for their Shorts in the style of Charli XCX, Troye Sivan, John Legend, Demi Lovato, Charlie Puth, Papoose, Sia, T- Pain and Alec Benjamin, all with the consent of the artists themselves.
YouTube is testing AI-generated summaries of comment sections
To create a song, creators can enter a song idea in the creation prompt, select one of the above artists whose voice will be AI generated in the song.
“When I was first approached by YouTube, I was cautious, and I still am, AI will transform the world and the music industry in ways we don’t yet fully understand,” Charli XCX said in a press statement. “This experiment will offer a small glimpse of the creative possibilities that might be possible, and I’m interested to see what comes of it.”
Credit: YouTube
The Shorts feature isn’t a real surprise, given that Google announced its Music AI Incubator, a partnership with Universal Music Group, in August, and the licensing of artists’ voices for AI-generated music projects with YouTube. It was announced alongside the publication of YouTube’s AI Music Principles, which promise to “take it responsibly with our music partners.”
Keeping the feature specifically for Shorts is a smart move, given that platforms like Spotify are removing thousands of AI-generated songs — and Universal has previously called on streaming services to crack down on AI-generated music over copyright concerns .
The news also comes just two days after YouTube said it would soon require creators to indicate whether a video was made with AI generators or risk fines, removal of their content or suspension from the YouTube Partner Program – and which importantly, artists themselves will be able to request the removal of deeply fake content and AI-generated music uploaded without their consent.
In addition to Dream Tracks, released today, YouTube said it’s working on a “set of music AI tools” with its Music AI Incubator set for testing later this year: “Imagine being able to more seamlessly transform your thoughts and ideas in music; like creating a new guitar riff just by humming it to yourself, or taking a pop song you’re working on and giving it a reggaeton feel. We are developing future tools that could bring these capabilities to life.”
It’s eggshell territory, the AI-generated music space, with possible controversies around every corner. But with major labels in direct conversation with tech platforms, licensing deals like these could at least bring some comfort to the artists themselves. Is AI-generated music the future? On the one hand, HYBE Chairman Bang Si-Hyuk thinks so.
