After a song featuring the voices of Drake and The Weeknd, generated by AI, went viral on TikTok and was posted across streaming platforms, Universal Music made an open appeal to streaming platforms to remove AI-generated songs, and to stop allowing the bots to train on their catalogues.
The appeal is natural; as a copyright holder, Universal has a vested interest in making sure its music is not used for profit by other companies without permission. Apps like Drayk.it, which generated bespoke Drake songs, have already been taken down – but others, like covers.ai, are still live.
Covers.ai (which is waitlist-only at the moment for new users) allows users to generate any celebrity cover song. Its associated app, beatfkr, already allows users to play with existing tracks, by adding beats and changing the tempo or pitch, with the tagline “Take your sped up or slowed down songs and go viral on TikTok”.
This poses a conundrum for anyone looking to slow the expansion of AI into copyrighted territory. The datasets of catalogue used to train the bots are already out there, and cannot be taken back into custody. Furthermore, where lies the definition of what is AI-generated and what is not? While the fake The Weeknd / Drake song ‘Heart On My Sleeve’ is a clear cut case, especially given that it was uploaded on streaming platforms with the potential to monetise, some artists, like Holly Herndon, Brian Eno, and even virtual artist Miquela proudly use AI as a tool in their creative process. At what point would they be banned from streaming platforms as well? The labels must, to an extent, treat AI like piracy – but in a world where its use is legitimised on some (social) platforms, while potentially being banned from others.
Critically, covers.ai and beatfkr are designed for TikTok: a place where the lifecycle of popular content is so short, from a user perspective, getting taken down a day after posting is no different from the normal day-after fall back into obscurity.
They will still have their followers, and copies of the song will be constantly re-uploaded and taken down in an endless cycle of cat-and-mouse. Social content platforms will be the new home of AI-generated entertainment, and users will flock there to see, share, and comment.
The Pandora’s box has been opened, and labels must learn how to take advantage of it – or simply risk being overwhelmed by the new habits of web 3.0 audiences.