Universal Music Group has commented on the recent distribution of a fake Drake song put out on social media and major streaming platforms. In addition to distancing their prized artist from the song, the company presented to the public the legalities of using artificial intelligence (AI) to duplicate an artist’s voice and talents.
The song uses technology to duplicate Drizzy’s voice to make the song. He had nothing to do with the making of the song. The entertainment giant declared to do so is “a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law.”
According to Music Business World, UMG released an official statement to represent their position on the use of AI, specifically regarding the Canadian chart-topper.
“UMG’s success has been, in part, due to embracing new technology and putting it to work for our artists–as we have been doing with our own innovation around AI for some time already,” the statement explained, positioning the company as a pro-tech force in the music industry.
“With that said, however, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation,” it continued.
“These instances demonstrate why platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists,” the lawyers for the musical conglomerate informed, adding, “We’re encouraged by the engagement of our platform partners on these issues–as they recognize they need to be part of the solution.”
The fake Drake song, titled “Heart on My Sleep,” was released on all DSPs and credited to the artist’s ghostwriter. It was fairly successful, garnering 230,000 plays on YouTube and more than 625,000 plays on Spotify.
However, now the following have voluntarily removed the song: Apple Music, Deezer, TIDAL, Spotify, SoundCloud, and YouTube.