A song that used artificial intelligence to clone the voices of Drake and The Weeknd has been removed from Apple Music, Spotify, and other streamers after a claim from Universal Music Group.
This serves as a reminder to radio broadcasters that using AI to mimic celebrities for ads or promotions that can be monetized could lead to legal trouble.
The pseudo-collaboration between the superstars, “Heart on my Sleeve,” went viral in the past week. The track simulates Drake and The Weeknd trading verses about Selena Gomez, who previously dated The Weeknd, and is raising major concerns about AI being used to profit off recording artists.
“Heart on my Sleeve” was streamed approximately 630,000 times on Spotify before it was removed. At Spotify’s minimum streaming rate ($0.003), that equals close to $2,000. UMG claimed that the song violated copyright law and platforms had a “legal and ethical responsibility” to prevent services that harm artists.
UMG told the BBC that, “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.”
