Amazon and Universal Music Group (UMG) on Monday announced the expansion of their partnership. Among other topics, both entities highlighted that the collaboration will focus on the advancement of artist-centric principles, including enhancing protection against fraud. While there was a collaborative agreement between the two companies, the new partnership has expanded its scope and includes product innovation, exclusive content rights with UMG artists, as well as a partnership to address the issue of illegal artificial intelligence (AI) content in music. The overall policy is included. Industry.
Amazon and UMG will tackle AI issues in the music industry
In a press release, UMG announced an expanded collaboration with Amazon that addresses a number of issues in the music industry, including AI-generated content that mimics an artist’s voice and likeness. In a joint statement, the companies highlighted their “shared commitment” to advancing and safeguarding human artistry.
“UMG and Amazon will work together to, among other things, address illegal AI-generated content as well as protect against fraud and misattribution,” the statement said.
Deepfakes, or AI-generated music that resembles artists’ voices and mannerisms, is a growing problem in the music industry. Last year, an AI-generated song called Heart on My Sleeve featuring the voices of Drake and The Weeknd was released on Spotify, Apple Music and other music streaming platforms. The song quickly hit the charts as listeners and the platform considered it an authentic song. However, it was removed from the platform after it was discovered to be created using AI.
This is one of many examples where bad actors have used AI tools to generate music to mimic that of popular artists in order to generate revenue. Since AI-generated music is a legally gray area, authorities have not yet been able to take strong steps to protect artists.
In the announcement, UMG and Amazon acknowledged the disruption of AI-generated content and expressed a desire to collaborate to develop innovative products to identify and characterize synthetic content on Amazon’s platform.
Notably, earlier this year, Meta signed a similar extension of the agreement to address unauthorized AI-generated content to protect human artists and songwriters. However, the announcement did not provide further details about the steps companies would take to reduce the risk of music deepfakes.
