The Future of Music: AI Technology Lets Any Singer Cover Any Song

AI technology is evolving rapidly and has benefited many industries, such as professional businesses, cooking, the medical field, etc. Artificial Intelligence has become so advanced that it can perform many tasks better than most humans. Throughout our previous AI blogs, we have discussed how technology has affected our day-to-day lives. However, I want to highlight a new way: its impact on entertainment, specifically the music industry. AI is now changing how we interpret and listen to the music we love.

Recently, a viral video on social media showed how an engineer used voice cloning technology to create a cover version of a song using the voice of a famous singer.

Watch the video here.

As you can see, the voice cloning technology can take a song or lyrics and use any voice - including those of famous singers - to "sing" any song. For example, using this technology, it is possible to make it sound like Justin Timberlake is singing a Dolly Parton song or to make it sound like Michael Jackson is singing an Adele song. The result is a convincing audio track that can make it seem like a famous singer is singing a song they never actually recorded.

How does this tool work?

The process involves AI analyzing a recording of an original song to identify the unique vocal characteristics of the singer and then using this information to generate a new version of a song or sing composed lyrics.

How is this technology affecting the music industry?

This technology eliminates the need for artists to come in physically and record music. With the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI), music can be produced without any human performance or input required. AI can handle all the necessary tasks, from composing music to singing. All that's needed is a recording of reference vocals, which can be replaced with the desired AI-generated singer using a trained model. Therefore, AI will do all the work for them.

Imagine an AI tool evolving to the point where it can mimic artists' voices so accurately that it becomes difficult to tell whether it's the actual artist or not. Recently, an AI-generated song featuring the voices of Drake and The Weeknd went viral. With just a few steps, some composed lyrics, and an AI-generated Drake voice, the song has become a favorite of Drake fans, even though Drake had no involvement in its creation. It has reached over 10.2 million views, and 629 thousand listens on Spotify.

On the other hand, there are Copyrights issues.

The song has sparked concerns and legal action from music companies. For example, Universal Music Group wants to ban AI music from streaming platforms, calling it a "fraud." The company believes they are responsible for preventing the unauthorized use of its artists' music and stopping content that violates creators' rights. They also stated that they are not against technology and use it for their artists as well. However, they believe that this new tool will threaten their library of music as well as artists that "generate billions of dollars in revenue" (CNN).

Overall, it is likely that you will hear about this new AI tool soon and how it affects the music we listen to daily. While the tool is not perfect yet, its early progress has already affected the music industry and how it will operate soon.