The music industry is rapidly evolving, and Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s largest music company, is embracing the future by partnering with AI start-up SoundLabs. The partnership gives artists a possibility to produce new songs or remixes without physically recording in the studio. UMG guarantees that artists retain full ownership of their AI-generated content, ensuring they control how their voices are used.
Unlike some controversial AI uses in the industry, this partnership is built on ethical use and artistic control. It offers artists unique creative possibilities, such as voice-to-voice transformations, converting speech into singing, and language transposition. In a press release, Universal Music say, “Together, UMG and SoundLabs are collaborating to allow UMG artists to create custom vocal models that will be available for their exclusive creative use cases, and not available to the general public.” SoundLabs founder, artist BT (Brian Transeau), emphasizes that the tools are designed to amplify human creativity rather than replace it.
While UMG’s approach aims to empower artists, concerns remain about AI’s impact on the music industry. A recent study by APRA AMCOS found that a majority of artists fear AI’s growing influence in music, worrying it could devalue their work, and create a lack of authenticity.
By combining AI’s potential with a respect for artistic rights, UMG and SoundLabs are at the forefront of a new music production era. Whether this approach will become the norm or remain a controversial experiment will be seen.
