tech VICE: Inside the Discord Where Thousands of Rogue Producers Are Making AI Music

[VOSS]

 

Link, some highlights:

 

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Last week, a viral track that used AI to create an original song using Drake and The Weeknd’s voices went viral and gained millions of listens across the internet before being taken down after a major label complained. The success of "Heart on My Sleeve" has a lot of people wondering whether it represents the looming future of music, but it looks a lot more like the present: there are hundreds of other AI songs populating across social media and streaming platforms, and an entire community online dedicated to making AI music. 

 

These songs include both original tracks and covers, such as Rihanna singing “Cuff It” By Beyoncé, or Drake and Kanye West singing “WAP” by Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion, and rights holders are moving as fast as they can to take them down. On Saturday, a group of music producers and songwriters even released an entire album using AI-generated versions of rapper Travis Scott's voice and other artists, called UTOP-AI. The album was taken down three hours after being released on YouTube due to a copyright claim from Warner Music Group. It was then uploaded to Soundcloud, but was quickly taken offline there.

 

As AI music becomes more accessible and popular, it has become the center of a cultural debate. AI creators defend the technology as a way to make music more accessible, while many music industry professionals and other critics accuse creators of copyright infringement and cultural appropriation.

 

A Discord server called AI Hub hosts a large community of AI music creators behind some of the most viral AI songs. This server was created on March 25 and now has over 21,000 users. AI Hub is dedicated to making and sharing AI music and teaches people how to create songs, with guides and even ready-made AI models tailored to mimic specific artists' voices available to new creators. People can post songs they make and ask troubleshooting questions to each other. 

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UTOP-AI, the album created by the Discord community, features original songs using AI-generated vocals from famous artists including Travis Scott, Drake, Baby Keem, and Playboi Carti. Qo, Snoop Dogg, and twenty other people involved in the AI Hub community worked on it.

 

This album puts into practice what drew members to AI music in the first place—the ability to create material for artists they wish to hear more of. “If you're not aware, Utopia is an upcoming album that Travis Scott has been teasing for quite some time, but has never been released. A couple of members decided ‘You know what? We should just make Utopia ourselves at this point. We have the technology now.’ It's entirely written and produced by community members, and is being released sometime soon,” AI Hub's Snoop Dogg said. 

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The copyright issue in AI music is being heavily debated following the success of “Heart on my sleeve,” which was created by an anonymous producer called Ghostwriter, who wrote and recorded the song, and used AI to replace his vocals with Drake's and The Weeknd's. After seeing this, Universal Music Group (UMG), where both Drake and The Weeknd are signed, flagged the song and AI content to music streaming services where it was immediately removed. 

 

“These instances demonstrate why platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists,” UMG told Motherboard in a statement about “Heart on my sleeve.” 

 

In March, UMG told streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple to block AI apps from taking melodies and lyrics from their copyrighted music and told the platforms that AI systems have been trained on copyrighted content without obtaining the required consent from the people who own and produce the content. UMG Executive Michael Nash also published an op-ed in February where he wrote that AI is “diluting the market, making original creations harder to find and violating artists’ legal rights to compensation from their work.” 

 

[katykater]

AI can't think for itself, but we can train AI to give the answers, results,... we want to hear.

 

When a pop girl is doing the wrong genre, the stans could ask AI how their fave would be like if she is doing the right genre, singing the right way, having the right taste,...

 

Which base will be the first one to create the idealized version of their fave because their girl isn't doing anything useful anytime soon?

[Da Vinci]

I'm listening to the song and OMFG the music industry is OVER

[Delirious]

16 minutes ago, Da Vinci said:

I'm listening to the song and OMFG the music industry is OVER

Nobody will support AI music. The music industry is far from over.

 

Not to mention the fact that labels will delete them ASAP

[Sergi91]

I’m still wondering how people do it. I would love to make some just to hear some of my deceased faves (Selena, Rocio Durcal) would sound on songs I like. 

[JayG]

1 hour ago, Delirious said:

Nobody will support AI music. The music industry is far from over.

 

Not to mention the fact that labels will delete them ASAP

Labels will shut this **** down so fast

[Last Boy on Earth]

2 hours ago, Delirious said:

Nobody will support AI music. The music industry is far from over.

 

Not to mention the fact that labels will delete them ASAP

Labels will be the ones monopolising AI music. A robot is cheaper than sharing millions of $$ with the artists 

[Wonderland]

Can they all please work on turning Lorde's "Solar Power" into "Lunar Power" and give the songs a dark edge. Thanks xx

[Rep2000]

4 hours ago, katykater said:

AI can't think for itself, but we can train AI to give the answers, results,... we want to hear.

 

When a pop girl is doing the wrong genre, the stans could ask AI how their fave would be like if she is doing the right genre, singing the right way, having the right taste,...

 

Which base will be the first one to create the idealized version of their fave because their girl isn't doing anything useful anytime soon?

[RideOrDie]

2 hours ago, Rep2000 said:

people would have to care enough and i haven't seen a single katy AI clip yet 

[ScorpiosGroove]

10 hours ago, katykater said:

Which base will be the first one to create the idealized version of their fave because their girl isn't doing anything useful anytime soon?

judging by the username yours 

 

 

 

OT: this whole Ai music shitnwill be another fad like NFT’s, y’all swore it’ll be the next big thing and all it ended up just being a scam with ugly monkey pictures 

[Katamari]

screaming

[scenekiller]

2 hours ago, Katamari said:

screaming

why is Kanye lisping?

[Bacardo Royale]

4 hours ago, Katamari said:

screaming

[boneyard]

7 hours ago, ScorpiosGroove said:

judging by the username yours 

 

 

 

OT: this whole Ai music shitnwill be another fad like NFT’s, y’all swore it’ll be the next big thing and all it ended up just being a scam with ugly monkey pictures 

It's basically fearmongering at this point. People freaking out about AI "ruining" independent artists, chatGPT taking jobs, etc. 

I only see the AI stuff for music a bit different because a lot of these AI songs are specifically taking the likeness of a musician and you can make said musician say/sing some really awful stuff. Or the viral song may get popular and they may want to take it down.