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YouTube is in talks with record labels to license their songs to artificial intelligence tools that clone popular artists’ music, hoping to win over a skeptical upfront payment industry.
The Google-owned video website needs publishing content to legally train AI song generators as it prepares to launch new tools this year, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The company recently offered lump sums of cash to the major labels — Sony, Warner and Universal — to try to convince more artists to allow their music to be used to train the AI software, according to several people briefed on the negotiations.
However, many artists remain staunchly opposed to AI music generation, fearing it could undermine the value of their work. Any move by a label to force its stars into such a scheme would be highly controversial.
“The industry is struggling with this. Technically, the companies have the copyright, but we have to think about how to play it,” said a major music company executive. “We don’t want to be seen as Luddites.”
Last year, YouTube began testing a generative AI tool that allows people to create short music clips by entering a text prompt. Originally named “Dream Track”, the product was designed to mimic the sound and lyrics of famous singers.
But only 10 artists agreed to participate in the test phase, including Charli XCX, Troye Sivan and John Legend, and the Dream Track was only made available to a small group of creators.
YouTube wants to sign up “dozens” of artists to launch a new AI song generator this year, two of the people said.
YouTube said: “We have no plans to expand Dream Track, but we are in talks with publishers about further experiments.”
YouTube is looking for new deals at a time when artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI are signing licensing deals with media groups to train large language models, the systems that power artificial intelligence products like the ChatGPT chatbot. Some of those deals are worth tens of millions of dollars to media companies, insiders say.
Music deals would be different. These would not be blanket licenses, but rather would cover a select group of artists, according to people briefed on the discussions.
It would be up to the labels to encourage their artists to participate in new projects. This means that the final amounts that YouTube may be willing to pay publishers are not determined at this stage.
The deals would look more like lump-sum payments from social media companies like Meta or Snap to entertainment groups for access to their music, rather than royalty-based arrangements with Spotify or Apple, the people said.
YouTube’s new AI tool, which is unlikely to carry the Dream Track brand, could be part of the YouTube Shorts platform, which competes with TikTok. Talks are ongoing and the terms of the deal could still change, the people said.
YouTube’s latest move comes as major record labels sued two AI startups, Suno and Udio, on Monday, which they say are illegally using copyrighted recordings to train their AI models. The music industry group is seeking “up to $150,000 per work that was infringed,” according to the filing.
After facing the threat of extinction following the rise of Napster in the 2000s, music companies are now scrambling to outrun disruptive technologies. The label wants to get involved in licensed products that use AI to create tracks using their music copyrights – and get paid for it.
Sony Music, which was not involved in the first phase of YouTube’s AI experiment, is in talks with the tech group to make some of its music accessible to the new tools, a person familiar with the matter said. Warner and Universal, whose artists participated in the test phase, are also in talks with YouTube to expand the product, the people said.
In April, more than 200 musicians including Billie Eilish and the estate of Frank Sinatra signed an open letter.
“Unchecked, AI will trigger a race to the bottom that will reduce the value of our work and prevent us from being fairly compensated for it,” the letter reads.
YouTube added: “We’re always testing new ideas and learning from our experiments; it is an important part of our innovation process. We will continue this journey with artificial intelligence and music as we build the future.”