AI Boom on the Cusp of Making a Splash in the Nigerian Music Scene

The debate on AI-generated music has been a hot topic for a minute as concerns about the ethical use of artists’ voices in AI-assisted creations persist. This technology has now made a stop in mainstream discourse in the Nigerian music industry.

Over the weekend, Victony, one of Afrobeats’ rising talents, presented a compelling use case of AI's potential by sharing four versions of ‘guest verses’ from Burna Boy, Central Cee, Dave, and Tems in his latest release, Jaga Jaga. Notably, Victony initiated an open-verse challenge for this track that has seen an array of entries from emerging and established artists.

While these verses were written by Victony himself, they were bolstered with AI-generated vocals that matched the tone and delivery of each ‘guest artist’. The upload has been met with glowing reviews about the versatility and artistry of Victony's penmanship. Many have clamoured for the verses to be merged into a single track for release, and someone has, in fact, taken the initiative to compile and upload the combined version.

The post has since gotten about 1 million views on Twitter; over 130,000 Likes on Instagram and thousands of comments across platforms.

Of course, this development is about a glimpse into the many ways AI may revolutionize the music industry, especially in the way we envision collaboration between artists, turning mere imagination into a tangible reality. For songwriters particularly, it becomes super useful for selling their artistic vision as they pitch ideas. Interestingly, Victony has recently expanded his songwriting horizons on a global scale by joining AVEX USA Publishing's roster; and you can tell this would be an instrumental tool in their arsenal.

This experiment is expected to create a rush among artists, producers, and DJs who are eager to explore and demonstrate their capabilities using AI tools. But as many artists/writers/DJs and their teams may struggle to establish clear boundaries, I have a concern things could spiral out of control to an extent that becomes difficult to manage. As expected, with any new development, there will always be upsides and downsides that need due consideration.

This bears resemblance to a stunt pulled earlier this year by French DJ/Producer David Guetta. He shared a viral video captured during one of his live sets, in which he played a vocal that sounded like it was recorded by Eminem. However, it turned out to be an AI-generated replication of Eminem’s voice.

The video also includes an interview with Guetta discussing how the remix was brought to life using AI-generating websites. He said:

In response to the video, Guetta took care to clarify that he had no intention of commercially distributing the song, making it clear that it was solely an experiment.

Global Overview

The global music industry has, in the past months, experienced a tidal wave of AI-created, or at least AI-assisted, music. We have seen several AI-generated music productions that cleverly mimic the vocals of artists like Drake, The Weeknd, Rihanna, etc.

There was a viral social media snippet of an AI creation that replicated Beyoncé’s hit, "Cuff It" in Rihanna’s vocal. This would be followed by another original composition titled Heart on My Sleeve sung by an AI-generated Drake and The Weeknd vocals.

Now, not only was this song viral on social media, but it also found its way to streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, Deezer, and TIDAL; where it racked up streams by hundreds of thousands - 625,000 plays on Spotify and 250,000 plays on YouTube - before it was taken down.

The track seemed to have gained virality after ghostwriter, appearing on TikTok as Ghostwriter977, shared it through a series of short videos, one of which hit over 9 million plays. 

Another AI-generated track that caused a stir was a rip-off of Ice Spice's "Munch", delivered in Drake vocals. This might have put Drake on edge, so much, that he calls it “the final straw”

The buzz surrounding these AI-generated tracks would prompt a statement from UMG, the label that Rihanna, Drake, and The Weeknd are affiliated with. It reads:

UMG's CEO, Lucian Grainge, isn't finding this development the least bit funny. It might just be one of the main motivations behind his push for "artist-centric" royalty models at streaming platforms - as a way to establish a defense against the possibility of machines generating musical content at an absurdly rapid pace and yet share the same earnings with actual artists.

UMG and Deezer have since reached an agreement to float this [artist-centric] model starting this quarter. Spotify has also announced its plan to implement a similar adjustment to its payout model, starting January 2024. And just last week, Warner nodded to exploring the artist-centric payout model.

Copyright Lawsuits

The music industry is already cracking down on certain AI-driven companies and products, in hopes that it would shape the boundaries and legal considerations surrounding the exploitation of music copyrights in AI generations.

Last month, Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group, and ABKCO filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, accusing them of "systematic and widespread infringement" of their copyrighted song lyrics. Anthropic, whose flagship product Claude competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT, received an initial investment of $500 million from Google.

Read details of the lawsuit here and here.

New Businesses

Besides the aforementioned use cases, the music industry has not just embraced the rise of AI in many other ways, it has even witnessed the creation of new products and businesses with AI being at the core of their offering and strategies. Some of these ventures are, in fact, helmed by entertainment juggernauts like Tencent.

Last year, Tencent announced that they had produced 1,000 tracks featuring computer-generated vocals that replicated human voices, even those of deceased Chinese superstars and one of these tracks garnered over 100 million plays.

There’s also HYBE, which experienced significant revenue growth in Q3 2022 through its "Indirect-involvement" business segment - an approach that enables the use of superstar artists like BTS in various avenues like games and advertising, without requiring their active participation.

HYBE has now doubled down on its AI-generated voice plans, by fully acquiring Supertone last October in a $32 million deal.

Artists Are Not Left Out

Grimes, the Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer, is known for her proclivity to embrace and integrate cutting-edge technologies into her creative and marketing pursuits.

PS: Grimes is Elon Musk’s former partner and co-parent to their three kids

She recently teamed with a design and development studio, CreateSafe and music technology platform Slip.stream for a new project that allows creators to incorporate over 200 AI-generated tracks featuring Grimes' voice into their video content, podcasts, and livestreams across any platform.

Artists can also integrate Grimes’ vocals into their original compositions and distribute them to major streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal, in exchange for a 50% share of the master recording royalties.

Grimes also partnered with Believe-owned TuneCore to let artists distribute collaborations created through the AI project called Elf.Tech.

There’s also Moises, a music creation platform [present in the US and Brazil], which unveiled Voice Studio, an AI-powered platform that enables vocalists to license their own voices and sell them to producers and content creators.

For sure, the proliferation of AI in the music industry brings about a paradigm shift in how music is created, produced, and consumed. However, finding the right balance is what makes this development relevant to the music ecosystem as we progress. It might entail fostering a harmonious coexistence between human creativity and AI, recognizing the importance of setting boundaries to ensure responsible use of this technology, and ultimately being mindful enough not to infringe upon intellectual property rights.