Grimes leans into fan creativity with Elf.Tech

Grimes leans into fan creativity with Elf.Tech

When artificial intelligence (AI)-generated songs mimicking the vocals of real artists began circulating the internet in spring 2023, the music industry’s immediate response was fear. Understandably so — it is difficult to discern these so-called ‘deepfakes’ from artists’ authentic releases, and there is no clear path for compensating the copied artist.

However, never one to follow the crowd, Grimes saw an opportunity to lean into the technology. Following in the footsteps of artist Holly Herndon and her Holly+ ‘vocal instrument’, Grimes quickly set up her own AI voice software, Elf.Tech, in early May 2023. Here, fans and fellow artists alike can record or upload vocals for regurgitation in Grimes’ own voice. The software is free to use, but Grimes specifies that anyone wishing to commercially release their result must split master recording royalties with her 50-50. Within two weeks of Elf.Tech’s launch, producer Kito released ‘Cold Touch’, a track created by feeding vocals from the artist Nina Nesbitt into Elf.Tech. The song has close to one million Spotify streams to date. 

However, the key is that the software is not only intended for peer artists to use, but for fans as well. Thanks to the widespread availability of simple, cheap creative tools, consumers increasingly express fandom by creating — a prime example is the Bridgerton musical, developed on TikTok by two fans of the TV series. As AI brings casual music-making tools to the masses, artists can expect an increasingly larger chunk of their fanbase to make music themselves as a hobby, form of entertainment, or simply another tool in the social media toolbox. This shift will unearth a new market for selling fans music tools, from vocal generators, like Elf.Tech, to stem packs and branded hardware.

Elf.Tech reflects the opportunities of this new technology just as much as the limitations. While Grimes employed a content review of songs processed for commercial release, she has little oversight of non-commercial uses, pleading users to “be tasteful” with their creations.

Unless they are fully independent, any artists hoping to embark on a similar project would surely face a web of copyright challenges. However, there must be a balance between enabling consumer creativity and controlling ownership. As we can learn from Grimes, it is much more fruitful to figure out how to work with emerging technology than to push against it.

Roles

This report is relevant to the following roles:

Fandom