Google and Universal Music seek royalties for singers for 'fake' songs created by artificial intelligence

Rapper Drake called AI-generated tracks «demonic» after the technology was used to reproduce his voice. Credit: Daniel Bokzarski/Getty Images

Artists can earn royalties under plans to allow artificial intelligence to mimic their voice as record companies try to capitalize on one of the music industry's biggest threats.

Google and Johnny Cash's label Universal Music Group (UMG) are in talks to license songs and artist voices so that people can legally create artificial intelligence tracks.

The move was made after an AI-generated parody to the singer Hurt sings the words to Aqua's song. Barbie girl went viral.

Google and Universal Music Group (UMG) are looking to forge a partnership between the two companies, reports the Financial Times, at a time when artificial intelligence threatens to render the music business's lucrative catalogs obsolete.

If negotiated, successful fans can legitimately create tracks with the help of AI, and the royalties will be paid to the record company.

The impact of AI on music

Currently, the rapid development of free artificial intelligence tools such as MidJourney, which generates video, and tools for deepfaking audio, means that the creation of this type of content is quite accessible to ordinary consumers.

Michael Nash, UMG's executive vice president and chief digital officer, wrote earlier this year that the development of AI could be a «disaster» for the industry.

In his opinion, the technology could dilute the market by «making it difficult search for original creations. and violating the legal rights of artists to be compensated for their work.”

He added: «These developments have caused deep concern in our industry as there are similarities between the rise of AI and the rise of Napster and unlicensed music sharing over 20 years ago.»

Public debate about deepfake entertainment. heats up this year as mainstream TV channels began airing computerized versions of the stars.

Simon Cowell came close to winning America's Got Talent with the AI ​​group, which included Elvis, while An ITV series earlier this year saw Idris Elba and Kim Kardashian squabbling over living in a south London apartment.

Living artists were unhappy with AI versions of themselves. Rapper Drake called such tracks «demonic» after the computer version of his performance with The Weeknd had garnered 20 million streams by April.

There are shades of Google's rise to popularity in the debate. YouTube, where copyright infringement by site users has led to years of dispute with the music industry.

Today, Google pays record companies about $2 billion a year in royalties, and authorized versions of songs are uploaded to users' videos.