👨‍🎤 Who will win in AI-generated music?

Reading time: 3 minutes

Hi friends! Busy week. I’ve been listening to loads of podcasts lately while packing, writing, more (DM me your fav podcasts). This week’s all about audio.

• 1. 🎵 That viral Drake song

• 2. 👨‍🎤 Who will win in AI-generated music?

• 3. 🛠️ Tool: Speechify

• 4. 🎼 MusicLM: text-to-music

• 5. 🔨 US presidents playing Minecraft

1. 🎵 That viral Drake song

• Everyone’s heard the viral AI-generated Drake x The Weeknd song Heart on my Sleeve by now, and if you haven’t - here it is. It is shockingly and bizarrely good.

• There’s a cloud of mystery surrounding the whole thing because the TikTok account that posted it was new, yet racked up millions of views almost instantly.

• The Verge dedicated a whodunnit article about it here. Prime suspects: Drake himself, Universal Music, Crypto guy, AI hustle spam.

• We’re only months into this whole AI-generated everything thing. So what’s really going on, and who stands to benefit?

2. 👨‍🎤 AI-generated music: who wins?

• The music industry has dealt with its fair share of upheaval. CDs and concerts to streamers. Who are the parties involves and what might happen?

• Will artists profit from AI-generated music? Perhaps. Pending copyright laws and a studio’s ability to protect them. Historically that’s been relatively good, after a period of transition. You don’t hear any copyrighted songs on YouTube, because algorithms pick out copyrighted music quickly and studios can almost auto-sue creators. Ergo, Heart on my Sleeve has been taken down on most channels by now.

• Already famous artist would probably benefit most. Eclectic musician (and ex-Elon girlfriend) Grimes says she’ll split 50% royalties on any successful AI-generated song that uses her voice. Between the lines, Grimes is actually saying “I will insist on 50% of royalties if you use my voice”. That’s maybe one way to openly license her own intellectual property, and gain royalties without a contract/other work on her part?

• What are the streamers saying? Spotify CEO said “[AI] should lead to more music. More music, obviously, we think is great culturally.”

• Read: Spotify business model is to pay artists per stream (about $4 for every million streams). No skin in the game in terms of payout to someone using AI, or not. Music is music. As long as people listen on Spotify of course.

• We might see AI-generated songs of popular singers flooding the market. Decline of new talent ensues, studios continue the trend of divesting away from new talent. Dreary but been happening for years (similar in Hollywood & its fascination towards sequals). 

• So who really wins? Maybe songwriters? Could be a great time for them. Ability to use Grimes’ voice with her permission. Maybe others will follow too, and songwriters will just be able to focus on one thing. Writing songs.

3. 🛠️ Tool: Snoop Dog reads anything & everything with Speechify 

• Here’s Snoop Dog reading an excerpt out of the Beginner’s Guide to Generative AI (hat tip to Stefanie!).

• Excellent for the audio-oriented. That’s not necessarily me, but i can see the appeal. Free.

• Does exactly as it says. Free. Five stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

4. 🎼 MusicLM: Text-to-Music

• Music generated according to a description. Experimental paper by Google.

• For example, “The main soundtrack of an arcade game. It is fast-paced and upbeat, with a catchy electric guitar riff. The music is repetitive and easy to remember, but with unexpected sounds, like cymbal crashes or drum rolls.” Really great.

• Play the audio here.

• Would love to /imagine audio for electric dreams newsletter. What would that even sound like?

5. ⛏ US presidents playing Minecraft

Have a great labor day. Stay hydrated, eat vegetables. I wish you nice human and non-robot things like sunny skies and solid sleep.

Cheers,
Tanya

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Previous editions:

• Why Can't AI Get Hands Right? 🙋‍♀️

• Beginner’s Guide to Generative AI ⚡

• AI agents and game designers losing jobs to AI 🎮

• How to use ChatGPT in Excel 💻

📧 You’re still here? If you stayed to the end you're probably cool and I'd like to connect. Give me a book recommendation or just say hi on Twitter or LinkedIn.