Imagine if there were no singers! Music bosses are panicking as a new AI-generated song by John Lennon is released 40 years after the Beatles star’s death
- Sir Paul McCartney recently promised to make “the Beatles’ last record”.
- Using AI technology, Lennon’s voice was “extracted” from a 1978 demo.
Sir Paul McCartney recently promised to make “the Beatles’ last record”, complete with vocals by John Lennon.
Now it seems as if a complete stranger got there before him – and the result is causing enormous panic throughout the music industry.
Sir Paul explained how artificial intelligence was used to ‘extract’ Lennon’s voice from a 1978 demo so he could complete the song, which will be released later this year.
However, he also emphasized that “nothing was created artificially or synthetically”, the AI merely cleans up what was already there.
However, the same is certainly not true of a recently surfaced computer-generated video showing Lennon singing an all-new song more than 40 years after his death.
Sir Paul McCartney recently promised to make “the Beatles’ last record”, complete with vocals by John Lennon
Sir Paul explained how artificial intelligence was used to ‘extract’ Lennon’s voice from a 1978 demo so he could complete the song, which will be released later this year
It’s been more than 50 years since all four members of The Beatles released music with their emotional classic The End. Pictured left to right: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison
Pictures of him performing a track called “Everybody But You” were shared on social media platforms and received positive reviews from listeners.
Some even hailed it as good enough to be released by the Fab Four themselves.
“Everybody But You” was written earlier this year by an artist using the alias Kid Klava, who confirmed that rather than sing it himself, he used AI to create a performance of the Beatles star without asking his estate’s permission.
On TikTok, he boasted, “I realized I can get John to sing it for me!” And while I’m at it, why not get Paul on backing vocals?’
Meanwhile, another post featured images of soul legend Stevie Wonder performing one of Kid Klava’s songs.
The use of famous artists to perform songs written by today’s unknowns has sparked widespread concern at the top of the music industry, raising fears that copyright issues are at stake and that dead singers could be used to make money for people that have nothing to do with them.
Label bosses even fear they could lose control over the output of some of their biggest acts. One manager said: “Using some of the greatest artists of all time to artificially perform and promote songs is a nightmare for us.”
“It threatens to undermine everything the music industry was created to do.”
“But you also have to think of the surviving family members of people like John Lennon, because his legendary status is being used to make money for others.” It seems utterly false and prone to massive abuse.”
Universal, the world’s largest record label, advocates applying copyright to the data used for machine learning, such as the voice stems used to train computers to create voice clones.
Sting has also criticized the use of AI when writing new songs and music. Earlier this year, the former Police frontman said, “The building blocks of music belong to us, the people.”
Artificial intelligence is also behind the current strikes in Hollywood.
Both actors and writers are refusing to work to protest the possibility of film and television studios using AI technology as a substitute.