Universal Music Group (UMG) is going after those who created an AI-generated song that sounds like Drake and The Weeknd.
The song “Heart On My Sleeve” went viral after it was first released on TikTok under the name Ghostwriter 997 over the weekend.
The anonymous account cryptically said, “I’m just getting started.”
The full song then ended up on digital streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube, The Verge reported.
The song itself was a hit, racking up 600,000 streams on Spotify. The TikTok video received over 277,000 likes, according to Billboard.
On Monday, UMG, which has distribution deals with both Canadian artists, had the song pulled from digital streaming platforms.
“UMG’s success has been, in part, due to embracing new technology and putting it to work for our artists–as we have been doing with our own innovation around AI for some time already,” a statement from James Murtagh-Hopkins, UMG senior vice president read.
He then continued his statement by saying the song was “a violation of copyright law.”
“With that said, however, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.”
Now it seems like more songs have popped up online.
“Winters Cold” and “Not A Game” have been released and are being promoted as AI-generated songs, TMZ reported.
So far neither artist has publicly commented on these songs specifically.
However, days ago Drake claimed artificial intelligence had gone too far when his likeness was used over the Ice Spice song, “Munch (Feelin’ U).”
“This is the final straw AI,” he posted in his now-expired Instagram story with a link to the video from The Shaderoom.
KTLA 5 News has reached out to UMG regarding the latest leaks and hasn’t heard back.