YouTube is in talks with major music labels such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Records to get the right to use their artists’ music to train artificial intelligence. This was reported by the Financial Times.
The company plans to use songs from major music labels to train a new artificial intelligence-based tool to create music. This was reported by people familiar with the matter.
The company has already experimented with such instruments when it signed an agreement with 10 musicians last year to create Dream Track. However, as YouTube representatives told the Financial Times, these agreements are not needed to train Dream Track, but to create new instruments.
“We have no plans to expand Dream Track, but we are in talks with labels about other experiments. We’re always testing new ideas and learning from our experiments; it’s an important part of our innovation process. We will continue on this path with artificial intelligence and music as we build the future,” YouTube said in a statement.
According to people close to the matter, all three companies have agreed to the talks. Universal and Warner are discussing the possibility of expanding the catalog of artists and songs available to the company for training. Sony, which was not involved in the previous deal, is also in talks to provide rights to use its music.
Details of the agreements with companies remain unknown. Labels will probably be forced to encourage their artists to grant rights to use their music for AI training. It is also reported that the payment from YouTube will be a one-time payment, not based on royalties.
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