Grimes Offers Her Vocals for Free for AI-Generated Songs

Pop vocalist Claire Boucher, popularly known as Grimes, has stated that anyone is free to use her vocals in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated songs. In a tweet, she stated that she would divide half of her royalties with any profitable AI-generated song that uses her voice, stating that there is no punishment for using her voice as AI-produced songs would have the same deal as collaborating with any artist.

Grimes’ statement has generated a frenzy reaction in the music industry, particularly following a recent legal dispute between Universal Music and the streaming platform. Universal had successfully appealed to remove a song titled “Heart On My Sleeve”, which featured false vocals of Drake and The Weeknd generated by AI. The label claimed that the AI-generated song was a copyright infringement. However, the court stayed in a legal grey area and did not assess the stance.

The US Copyright Office has also recently ruled that AI creations, including music, cannot be protected by copyright because they are not human compositions. However, it is still unclear if art developed by humans contains saved AI components.

Grimes about AI-generated songs

Grimes, on the other hand, seems excited about the idea of public accessibility of all art and the eradication of copyright. She has even announced that she is working on a project that would imitate her voice adequately and would produce acapella tracks for individuals to test their software on. After this statement, her fans have posted links to songs they had generated starring her voice. Grimes says that she is looking forward to being a subject of experiments for the technology, thinking it’s nice linking her with a device.

However, Grimes’ reaction to using her vocals for graphics and racist or violent topics has come under heavy criticism. She responded that copyright only removes toxic songs. Grimes’ announcement has opened up a new avenue for AI-generated music, and it will be interesting to see if other artists follow her lead in the future.

Photo credit: Adrian Korte (Unsplash)