YouTube tries convincing record labels to license music for AI song generator

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YouTube is in talks with record labels to license their songs for artificial intelligence tools that clone popular artists’ music, hoping to win over a skeptical industry with upfront payments.

The Google-owned video site needs labels’ content to legally train AI song generators, as it prepares to launch new tools this year, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The company has recently offered lump sums of cash to the major labels—Sony, Warner and Universal—to try to convince more artists to allow their music to be used in training AI software, according to several people briefed on the talks.

However, many artists remain fiercely opposed to AI music generation, fearing it could undermine the value of their work. Any move by a label to force their stars into such a scheme would be hugely controversial.

“The industry is wrestling with this. Technically the companies have the copyrights, but we have to think through how to play it,” said an executive at a large music company. “We don’t want to be seen as a Luddite.”

YouTube last year began testing a generative AI tool that lets people create short music clips by entering a text prompt. The product, initially named “Dream Track,” was designed to imitate the sound and lyrics of well-known singers.

But only 10 artists agreed to participate in the test phase, including Charli XCX, Troye Sivan and John Legend, and Dream Track was made available to a just small group of creators.

YouTube wants to sign up “dozens” of artists, to roll out a new AI song generator this year, said two of the people.

YouTube said: “We’re not looking to expand Dream Track but are in conversations with labels about other experiments.”

Licenses or lawsuits

YouTube is seeking new deals at a time when AI companies such as OpenAI are striking licensing agreements with media groups to train large language models, the systems that power AI products such as the ChatGPT chatbot. Some of those deals are worth tens of millions of dollars to media companies, insiders say.

The deals being negotiated in music would be different. They would not be blanket licenses but rather would apply to a select group of artists, according to people briefed on the discussions.

It would be up to the labels to encourage their artists to participate in the new projects. That means the final amounts YouTube might be willing to pay the labels are at this stage undetermined.

The deals would look more like the one-off payments from social media companies such as Meta or Snap to entertainment groups for access to their music, rather than the royalty-based arrangements labels have with Spotify or Apple, these people said.

YouTube’s new AI tool, which is unlikely to carry the Dream Track brand, could form part of YouTube’s Shorts platform, which competes with TikTok. Talks continue and deal terms could still change, the people said.

YouTube’s latest move comes as the leading record companies on Monday sued two AI start-ups, Suno and Udio, which they allege are illegally using copyrighted recordings to train their AI models. A music industry group is seeking “up to $150,000 per work infringed,” according to the filings.

After facing the threat of extinction following the rise of Napster in the 2000s, music companies are trying to get ahead of disruptive technology this time around. The labels are keen to get involved with licensed products that use AI to create songs using their music copyrights—and get paid for it.

Sony Music, which did not participate in the first phase of YouTube’s AI experiment, is in negotiations with the tech group to make available some of its music to the new tools, said a person familiar with the matter. Warner and Universal, whose artists participated in the test phase, are also in talks with YouTube about expanding the product, these people said.

In April, more than 200 musicians including Billie Eilish and the estate of Frank Sinatra signed an open letter.

“Unchecked, AI will set in motion a race to the bottom that will degrade the value of our work and prevent us from being fairly compensated for it,” the letter said.

YouTube added: “We are always testing new ideas and learning from our experiments; it’s an important part of our innovation process. We will continue on this path with AI and music as we build for the future.”

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