Universal Music partners with an AI company to develop an "ethical" music generator.
Industry rule number 4080.
Universal Music Group (UMG) has established a partnership with Klay Vision to create an artificial intelligence (AI) model focused on music generation. This new project, known as KLayMM, aims to be an "ethical" music generator and is expected to present its product in the coming months. Ary Attie, the founder and CEO of Klay, has stated that they believe future prominent artists, comparable to the Beatles, will use this technology.
Both companies emphasize that their goal is to develop generative music models that fully respect copyright as well as rights of name and likeness. They assert that this will significantly reduce risks for human creators and open up new creative and monetary opportunities. Regarding the impact it could have on artists, Klay mentions that they plan to establish a global ecosystem for AI-driven experiences, ensuring proper attribution and avoiding competition with artists' catalogs on traditional music services.
The announcement of this partnership comes amid a context where UMG is involved in litigation against AI music-generating sites and has recently signed a new licensing agreement with TikTok that covers, among other aspects, AI-generated music. The Klay team also includes chief content officer Thomas Hesse, former president of Sony Music Entertainment, and Björn Winckler, who previously worked at Google DeepMind and will be in charge of research.
