The threat of Artificial intelligence has been increasingly proliferating across the entertainment industry. As I write this, SAG-AFTRA and the Screen Writers Guild are on strike to protect their image and work from exploitative AI practices, among other revenue sharing issues. The Screen Actors Guild website states that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) wishes to use background actors' images for any purpose forever without their consent. The Screen Writers Guild is fighting back against studios using AI to write scripts, effectively taking away their jobs. This is a terrifying concept, and the unions are rightfully fighting back against this dangerous introduction of AI into their industry. These strikes makes me wonder though; where are musical artists protections from this growing threat? Should label artists have a union?
AI songs have been making their rounds recently through many peoples algorithms on social media. Videos of Spongebob characters singing r&b classics like “Love” by Keyshia Cole have garnered millions of views. Some people, like Oddwin, have taken it a step further and have created original songs with cartoon characters AI voices; Krusty Krew Anthem, a rap song majorly employing an AI Mr. Krabs, is undoubtedly a banger. This is all fun and games, but what happens when these songs are no longer using cartoon voices, but actual artist's voice? The anonymous character “ghostwriter” answers this question. He made a (mostly) original song “heart on my sleeve” , which employed the use of AI to make him sound like Drake and The Weeknd. This song gained millions of views, but was taken down from streaming services. More recently, Ghostwriter took to Twitter to call on Travis Scott and 21 Savage to allow him to release a song in which he uses AI to sound like the artists.
As a black artist, when I first came across this, I was horrified and it instantly reminded me of minstrelsy and black face. Ghostwriter, who many think to be a white man, is masquerading behind black voices while hiding his own face behind a white sheet (how ironic). Sure, he may not be painting his face with coal and his lips red, but I can't help but feel that this is indicative of a race issue just as much as a music rights issue. In an industry that has historically exploited black artists with predatory deals, the introduction of music that is literally stealing black artists voices is extremely worrying. Record labels may see this as an opportunity to further take advantage of black artists, and use their voice, their soul, for perpetuity, akin to what AMPTP seeks to do with actors' images. This is why I bring the idea of a need for a union for musical artists; to protect them from AI like SAG AFTRA has done for actors. Now, I am completely ignorant as to if that is even possible or not, but something needs to be done.
Many artists dont own the masters to their recordings, and we have seen superstars sell their discographies to companies for large amounts of money. Katy Perry just sold her discography, which includes master rights and publishing rights for $225 million to Litmus Music. Future sold his publishing catalog to investment firm Influence Media Partners. Wiz Khalifa sold his catalog assets to HarborView Equity Partners. I am not privy to the exact details of these contracts, but I hope that within these contracts there are some types of stipulations that stop these new owners of the music from using the purchased music to produce and release AI generated music. New artists signing to record labels should also see to it that their recording contracts have this same stipulation. What is an artist without ownership of his voice? With no ownership of your voice, you might literally be selling your soul.
AI generated music takes the soul away from music and mutilates and breaks it down to just a product meant to be sold and peddled to customers. It is disgusting to think white owned record labels may have the ability to manufacture black art and peddle it to the masses, throwing real black artists by the wayside.
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