Deezer to detect AI-generated music clones

Music streaming app Deezer said Tuesday it was launching a tool to detect and tag songs with AI-generated vocal clones in a bid to protect the revenues of the real artists.

Artificial Intelligence tools have recently allowed people to recreate the sound of famous artist vocals, from The Beatles to Oasis.

“Heart on a Sleeve”, a track featuring AI-generated copycats of Drake and The Weeknd, racked up millions of hits on TikTok and other platforms.

Music companies fear this could eat into future earnings since there is currently no way to copyright the sound of someone’s voice.

But Deezer said it plans to identify AI-generated music, focusing initially on those which recreate the voices of existing artists.

The French company said it aimed to create a system to tag these tunes in the app, which can alert artists, labels and users to this “fraudulent activity”.

“Our goal is to weed out illegal and fraudulent content, increase transparency, and develop a new remuneration system where professional artists are rewarded for creating valuable content,” said Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira in a statement.

He said more than 100,000 new tracks are uploaded to Deezer’s site daily, making it increasingly important to distinguish between human- and machine-generated music.

“AI can be used to create new incredible content and I believe there are massive benefits of using generative AI,” he added. “But we need to ensure it’s done in a responsible way.”

© 2023 AFP