YouTube’s new music experience includes clones of Demi Lovato, Charli XCX, John Legend, Troye Sivan and several other singers.
YouTube is launching a feature that will allow certain users to make music with the voices of several major artists generated by artificial intelligence, the company announced late Wednesday.
The experience, called Dream Track, is a text-based feature that allows users to request a song by describing qualities such as the mood or concept of the song, and artificial intelligence will generate the music. For now, nine artists (Demi Lovato, Alec Benjamin, Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, John Legend, Sia, T-Pain, Troye Sivan and Papoose) are lending their voices to Dream Track, and the experience will only be accessible to a small group of users.
Dream Track song clips will have a maximum length of 30 seconds, the company said in a blog post announcing the feature. Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s Global Head of Music, and Toni Reid, VP of Emerging Experiences and Community, described it as ” an experience designed to help explore how technology could be used to create deeper connections between artists and creators, and ultimately, their fans. »
“ Together, these experiments explore the potential of AI capabilities to help artists and creators expand their imaginations and improve their creative processeswrite Cohen and Reid. In return, fans will be able to connect with the creators they love in a new way, bringing them closer together through interactive tools and experiences. All of this will help us iterate and improve the technology, influencing the applications of the future. »
Dream Track is one of several new AI-powered features that YouTube and Google have announced. The company also said it would launch other music tools later this year that executives said could further streamline the song creation process. Content produced by YouTube features will be watermarked to make it easier to verify, the company said.
“ Imagine being able to turn your thoughts and ideas into music, like creating a new guitar riff by humming it or giving a pop track you’re working on a reggaeton twistMr. Cohen and Mr. Reid said. We are developing forward-looking tools that could bring these possibilities to life and Music AI Incubator participants will be able to test them later this year. »
The artists themselves said they view this new feature as a test of what AI can do when it comes to music creation. Charli XCX said in a statement: “ AI will transform the world and the music industry in ways we don’t yet fully understand. This experience will offer a small glimpse of the creative possibilities that could be offered, and I’m curious to see what comes out of it. »
In a separate statement, Demi Lovato wrote: “ My career has been about pushing boundaries and creating the most interesting music for my fans. I am open-minded and hope that this experience with Google and YouTube will be positive and educational. »
Robert Kyncl, CEO of Warner Music Group and former YouTube executive, described the beta as an opportunity for technology and music companies to test AI together: “ With every major technological advancement, the music industry must face new challenges and seize new opportunities. It is not always the case that, from the beginning, technology platforms partner with artists, songwriters, labels and publishers to experiment, iterate and find possible solutions. YouTube is taking a collaborative approach with this beta. These artists are offered the choice to participate, and we are happy to experiment and discover what the creators have to offer. »
