A.I. and the Music Industry-WCC STEM Scholars Newsletter

In a day and age where technology is rapidly advancing, it may not come as a surprise that we are becoming more fixated on making our machines more intelligent. This can come in a variety of ways such as changing speech-to-text and vice versa, recommended searches, language translation, as well as creative tools. Although artificial intelligence can provide many benefits to make our lives easier, it also has created many drawbacks and risks in terms of morality and ethics. Over the next several months, I will be taking us on a tour exploring the both the positives and the negatives that these advancements in technology have and will continue to provide to our society in various different, ranging from academics, to creativity, to employment, to even our democracy. The issue of “just because we can, doesn't mean we should” hangs in the balance in every different aspect that A.I. impacts.

Part 3: To Sing or not to Sing Have you wanted to hear one of your favorite songs covered by one of your favorite artists who have not covered that song? Thanks to the use of A.I., we now have covers of acclaimed musicians covering even the most bizarre songs, be it Frank Sinatra covering Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” or Freddie Mercury covering “My Heart Will Go On”. And it’s not just restricted to actual music artists, but also cartoon characters covering the songs, like the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it That Way” performed by the characters from SpongeBob SquarePants. Even public officials like Obama and Trump can cover any song of your liking.

Creating these various A.I. covers is often done with an A.I. voice model called Retrieval-based-Voice-Conversion, or RVC. Users can upload audio files to RVC, and create high- quality voice outputs of the musician or cartoon character, etc. of their choosing. But although these A.I. song covers are intended to be made for fun, there’s been a recent wave of controversy about copyright. Some creators want to take these A.I. covers live, which could potentially have record labels up in arms about being potentially taken over. The problem is complicated as these covers are technically made under fair use, taking a copyright-protected work and creating something new with it. However, in many cases the entire song is used to create these A.I. covers. Since the line between what is and what is not protected by copyright has been blurred, there is a lot of uncertainty that needs to be examined. As is mentioned in last month’s article, the increasing use of A.I. in Hollywood has led to the strike by writers and actors, fearing they could be replaced by the technology. Likewise, these A.I. covers are also causing fear raised that this technology could become a danger to real musicians and the industry as a whole. For the record, most of the covers have been made in pure fun, and even the biggest fans of these A.I. covers acknowledge that the voices aren't perfect and would never be as good as an actual cover. But despite this, there’s still a hornet's nest of issues, both legally and morally.

A few months ago, an A.I. cover of Rihanna singing Beyonce’s "Cuff It" began circulating around the internet. The song has been played over 850,000 times and garnered a lot of attention. Likewise, there have been A.I. covers of Kanye West singing the Plain White T's' "Hey There Delilah" and Drake's "Passionfruit" has also gained a lot of views. According to music lawyer Alexander Ross, one of the main controversies centers around the artist’s voice being used is A.I.-generated. “If you're creating a recording with the intention of misleading people into thinking it's the real thing… then you are passing off that as the original,” he stated. “On the other hand, if it's very clear that you are doing an A.I. exercise [and acknowledge that directly, then there is no passing-off claim.” But even if that was the case, there is still the issue of copyright infringement which could land these A.I. creators in legal trouble. “You've stolen part of the recording and you've distributed it, communicated it with the public. There are all sorts of grounds for infringement proceedings there,” Ross continued. Recently, the Universal Music Group, the world's leading music company, has requested that major streaming services block A.I. companies from accessing their music. “We have a moral and commercial responsibility to our artists to work to prevent the unauthorized use of their music and to stop platforms from ingesting content that violates the rights of artists and other creators. We expect our platform partners will want to prevent their services from being used in ways that harm artists,” a UMG representative claimed. This is also a sentiment echoed by the music distributers themselves. “The major labels and publishers spend so much time effort money marketing these artists they want to make sure that they're getting paid accordingly," said Leron Rogers, an entertainment lawyer with Fox Rothschild LLP.

Although no such actions have been taken as of now, it is very possible that even A.I. song covers from cartoon characters could face legal and moral consequences in the years to come, as it could potentially take away an opportunity for voice actors currently in the business or struggling to get in the business to showcase their singing skills while in character. This sentiment has already been showcased with the ongoing actors strike in Hollywood. Sungwon Cho, a YouTuber and voice actor views it as “disrespectful to the craft to suggest that generating a performance is equivalent to a real human being’s performance. [...] You can get it to sound tonally like a voice, and maybe even make it sound like it’s capturing an emotion, but at the end of the day, it is still going to ring hollow and false.” This can actually be demonstrated if one was to pull up an A.I.-generated cartoon cover of a song on YouTube. Although it may sound like the character, one can still hear the electronics altering the voice and there are moments it can be off-key or off-pitch during the song. There is a long road ahead in regards to where the line needs to drawn when it comes to creativity and copyright violations. Many music artists are more than aware that technological advancements are inevitable; there is nothing we can do to stop it. However we must also make sure that the rights of the artist and publishers are protected as with those who may want to use that work. No matter how much it may be to play around and give a new voice to a famous song, even have it sung by a cartoon, it still raises the question: Even if we can do it, should we do it?

Carter, J. (2023, February 12). Voice Actors Are Having Their Voices Stolen by AI. Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/voice-actors-ai-voices-controversy-1850105561

Johnson, A. (2023, May 5). AI-Generated Music Is Here—‘Sung’ By Stars Like Drake And Ariana Grande—But It May Be Very Illegal. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/05/03/ai-generated-music-is-here-sung- by-stars-like-drake-and-ariana-grande-but-it-may-be-very-illegal/?sh=6b1e6df53aa3

Lane, B. (2023, April 14). An AI-generated Rihanna cover of Beyoncé's 'Cuff It' is going viral, and it could open up a new legal nightmare for the music industry. Insider. https://www.insider.com/rihanna-ai-cuff-it-cover-legal-nightmare-music-industry-2023-4

Martin, L. (2023, April 20). Fake Drake: The AI-Generated music controversy, explained. Esquire. https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a43641144/ai-music-controversy-explained/

Scott, D. (2023, April 17). AI song covers mimicking artists’ voices could do “harm” to music industry. Mirror. https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/ai-song-covers-mimicking-artists-29732083