The move brings an interesting perspective on what the future of music could look like in a world heavily influenced by AI.
Photo-Illustration: Umang Sawkar/WIRED Middle East
Creative people in all fields have different consensuses when it comes to the use and integration of AI in the arts. Some are open to the new possibilities it offers while others are concerned about copyright issues. However, a new partnership between Universal Musical Group and Klay Vision could signal a new direction of entertainment production and consumption.
Here’s what you need to know about this new collaboration.
The summary
One of the greatest music groups, Universal Musical Group (better known as UMG) welcomes many renowned artists from around the world. The company collaborated with Klaya new AI group that focuses on music and is working on creating a large music model (known as “KLayMM”). This partnership will focus on creating foundational models that carefully consider topics such as artist creativity, copyright, and monetization in the generative AI space.
One of the main focuses of this announcement is the “ethical” use of AI. In its press release, UMG repeatedly emphasized that its partnership focuses on ethical applications and does not endanger the industry’s creatives or their work. Indeed, they emphasize that their creations are not intended to compete with the work of their signed artists, but rather to amplify it.
The role of generative AI in music and past issues
Even though generative AI is at our disposal, the possibilities for different creative approaches can give rise to a variety of different AI-made products, particularly in the music industry.
An example of this is that last year we saw the publication of a Beatles never heard before song after almost 50 years, titled, ‘From time to time.’ Indeed, Peter Jackson, the director of the Beatles documentary “Get Back”, was able to use AI to retrieve a previously recorded demo of the song.
While this is a restorative type approach, at the other extreme there are discussions about the data used to train these models. For example, last year there was a big lawsuit posed by entertainment companies like UMG (and others) towards Anthropican AI company. The dispute was over the topic of using these music groups’ copyrighted song lyrics and using them to train their chatbot. Similar events has also happened with other AI music generators like Suno and Udio.
Additionally, their current approach is interesting as in the past companies like UMG And Sony Music Group insisted on keeping their music out of the hands of AI, for fear of unethical use. This brings another angle on how companies want to approach the use of AI and aim to protect artists from unethical practices using their creations.
While these are a few substantial examples that may represent extremes, the day-to-day role of generative AI in music may be a little more straightforward and useful. For example, AI audio editing tools can enable simpler and more editing methods.
While the move represents a major shift in how music is treated on the creative side, it also raises questions about the public’s perception of art created by machine learning. Some trends currently seen on social media apps like TikTok involve waves of AI-generated covers and songs that have so far garnered positive reactions. However, given the possible large-scale implications of this partnership between UMG and Klay, the audience receiving AI-generated content is growing exponentially. These trends are also another example of the role of generative AI closely linked to social media culture.
Overall, these examples illustrate the different ways generative AI is being considered in the music industry. Here, these events make it clear that a big gap in this phenomenon is the lack of AI regulation that comes with something as pervasive as music.
Looking to the future
The music industry is not the first (nor the last) profession to be impacted by the introduction of AI. Last September, a major entertainment company Lionsgate also announced a partnership with AI company Runway. The partnership aims to assist media production, for example the creation of cinematic sequences.
Given the rapid development of AI, its integration and applications in various sectors of society are inevitable. However, it is up to businesses to recognize how to balance the use of these systems to ensure that creativity and authenticity are not compromised in the process.
