Fake Drake, Weeknd track with 20M streams deleted after UMG copyright claim
The dark day that AI music naysayers warned of arrived on Monday as a track featuring AI-generated Drake and Weeknd vocals pushed the music industry into panic mode.
UMG claimed copyright violations and demanded that streaming services take the track down. One by one, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms pulled the track, but not before it had received millions of streams.
“platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists”
Before its removal, “Heart On My Sleeve” was streamed 15 million times on TikTok, 625,000 times on TikTok, and 250,000 times on YouTube, according to various sources.
User-generated clips of the track can still be found on TikTok and elsewhere, garnering millions of streams as news of the controversy grew. The track’s apparent creator, “ghostwriter,” was still among those reposting a steady stream of clips on Tuesday.
@ghostwriter977 this song is out. Iink in my bio
♬ Heart on My Sleeve by Ghostwriter out everywhere. – ghostwriter
According to the RIAA, using AI to create sound-alike vocals is “unauthorized and infringes our members’ rights by making unauthorized copies of our members’ works.” But exactly how lawsuits to stop it will play out is unclear due to a web of inadequate copyright law and legal decisions written when music AI was only a distant possibility.
On Monday, UMG issued a statement.
“UMG’s success has been, in part, due to embracing new technology and putting it to work for our artists – as we have been doing with our own innovation around AI for some time already.”
“With that said, however, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law), as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.”
“These instances demonstrate why platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists.”
“We’re encouraged by the engagement of our platform partners on these issues–as they recognize they need to be part of the solution.” (via MBW)
MORE: What is an AI Cover Song, and why are Major Labels so afraid of them?
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.
