Universal Music Group have removed an AI-generated collaboration between Drake and The Weeknd from all streaming platforms. Check it out below.
The track was called ‘Heart On My Sleeve’ and was the latest viral song where AI technology was used to mimic the voice and style of popular artists. It was discovered a day after Drake condemned an AI cover of Ice Spice‘s ‘Munch’ in his style of him.
‘Heart On My Sleeve’ blew up in a matter of hours and reached 13 million views on TikTok alone. On popular DSPs like Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal, the song had hundreds of thousand streams – with over 100,000 views on YouTube before UMG banned the song. However, the song is still doing the rounds on social media.
Listen to this AI generated song featuring Drake & The Weeknd.
It goes so damn hard.
It's by "Ghostwriter977" on TikTok and it's blowing up on socials + streaming platforms.
UMG, which controls around 1/3 of the global music market, has already asked streaming platforms to ban… pic.twitter.com/roz2EfI48M
— Roberto Nickson (@rpnickson) April 16, 2023
This AI generated song featuring Drake & The Weeknd trading lines about Selena Gomez dropped on Saturday.
It now has 20m streams in under 48 hours.
TikTok: 13m
Twitter: 5.3m
Spotify: 254k (<24 hours)
Youtube: 144k
Soundcloud: 84kThe track is impressive & the artist leans hard… pic.twitter.com/XONATe7EYe
— Rob Abelow (@AbelowRob) April 17, 2023
In a statement, Universal Music explained its stance on the situation saying that the label’s success “has been due, in part, to embracing new technology and enabling it to empower our artists.”
They continued: “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.”
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They ended the statement by telling DSPs they have “a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility” to prevent acts that “harm artists” as well.
Ghostwriter977, the user whose YouTube channel uploaded the original Drake and The Weeknd cover, has been deleted but the track is still discoverable on TikTok and other social media. He hopes that the song has “turn[ed] the industry upside down.”
@ghostwriter977 this song is out everywhere. Iink in bio
♬ Heart on My Sleeve by Ghostwriter out everywhere. – ghostwriter
Other artists have fallen victim to this. Less than a month ago, an AI-generated Kanye West track went viral, while David Guetta said that the “future of music is AI” after showcasing a new song with an AI-generated Eminem verse.
Nick Cave, meanwhile, argued that ” ChatGPT should just fuck off and leave songwriting alone” after a fan wrote to him to share some lyrics generated in his style, made by the AI computer program. “Thanks for the song,” he replied. “But with all the love and respect in the world, this song is bullshit, a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”.