UMG GIVES AI PLAN A TEST RUN

Universal Music Group artists, songwriters and producers are the first to give the YouTube Music AI Incubator, a test run. Anitta, d4vd, Don Was and the Frank Sinatra estate are among the trial participants in the initiative, which Sir Lucian Grainge himself helped set up and has endorsed,.

Also included are Björn Ulvaeus, Juanes, Louis Bell, Max Richter, Rodney Jerkins, Rosanne Cash, Ryan Tedder and Yo Gotti, among others.

Grainge penned a blog post about the partnership, which reads in part:

“Our challenge and opportunity as an industry is to establish effective tools, incentives and rewards—as well as rules of the road—that enable us to limit AI’s potential downside while promoting its promising upside. If we strike the right balance, I believe AI will amplify human imagination and enrich musical creativity in extraordinary new ways.

“Our enduring faith in human creativity is the bedrock of Universal Music Group’s collaboration with YouTube on the future of AI. Central to our collective vision is taking steps to build a safe, responsible and profitable ecosystem of music and video—one where artists and songwriters have the ability to maintain their creative integrity, their power to choose and to be compensated fairly.

“Today, our partnership is building on that foundation with a shared commitment to lead responsibly, as outlined in YouTube’s AI principles, where artificial intelligence is built to empower human creativity, and not the other way around. AI will never replace human creativity because it will always lack the essential spark that drives the most talented artists to do their best work, which is intention. From Mozart to The Beatles to Taylor Swift, genius is never random.”

Said YouTube CEO Neal Mohan: “AI is here, and we will embrace it responsibly together with our music partners. As generative AI unlocks ambitious new forms of creativity, YouTube and our partners across the music industry agree to build on our long collaborative history and responsibly embrace this rapidly advancing field. Our goal is to partner with the music industry to empower creativity in a way that enhances our joint pursuit of responsible innovation."