This summer, Universal Music Group established a strategic partnership with artificial intelligence technology company SoundLabs to focus on providing music creators with “ethically” trained tools.
SoundLab, founded by Grammy-nominated producer, composer, software developer and electronic artist BT, equips UMG artists and producers with artificial intelligence technology through its “MicDrop” artificial intelligence vocal plug-in.
The first AI-driven version of the partnership is now available: in Spanish Brenda Lee’s Iconic festive craze, Swinging around the Christmas tree, First recorded 66 years ago.
Rockin’ in the Christmas tree The album spent three weeks at the top of the US Hot 100 chart last year, more than 50 years after it was first recorded and released (in 1958) by the then 13-year-old star.
new version, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Produced by Latin Grammy Award winner Auero Baqueiro. It uses original music and background vocals, while replacing Lee’s original lead vocals with newly translated Spanish vocals.
The track was released today (October 25) via MCA Nashville and UMG’s global catalog division, UMe.
The new song is Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was created using SoundLabs AI’s MicDrop audio plug-in, which allows users to transform their own voice into another sound or instrument.
SoundLabs, in partnership with UMG, is creating official “ultra-high fidelity” sound models for artists, trained using their own speech data “while giving them full artistic approval and control over the output.”
UMG claims the launch marks the first time a music company has used “ethically trained artificial intelligence” to release a new language version of a classic song, which it says was “responsibly created with the involvement and authorization of the artist.”
Universal has been a prominent player in artificial intelligence over the past few years. Last October, UMG partnered with BandLab Technologies to establish a “broad, industry-first strategic relationship focused on artificial intelligence.” Last August, YouTube and UMG formed a partnership to jointly develop artificial intelligence tools.
This month, UMG Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge was named to Business Insider’s 2024 Artificial Intelligence Power List.
“I’m absolutely blown away by this new Spanish-language version of ‘Rockin’ Christmas Tree’ created with the help of artificial intelligence.”
Brenda Lee
“I’m absolutely blown away by this new Spanish-language version of ‘Rockin’ Christmas Tree’ created with the help of artificial intelligence,” said Brenda Lee.
“Throughout my career I’ve performed and recorded many songs in different languages, but I’ve never recorded ‘Rockin’ in Spanish, and I’d love to do that. It’s incredible to have this song out now.” , I’m excited to introduce this song to fans in a new way.
“We are also very excited about the possibilities of this emerging technology and look forward to leveraging its capabilities to introduce new materials created and approved by our artists.”
Bruce Resnikov, UME
UMe President and CEO Bruce Resnikoff added, “We are excited to partner with Brenda Lee to make ‘Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree’ the first classic to be responsibly translated into another language using the power of artificial intelligence. song.
“We are also very excited about the possibilities of this emerging technology and look forward to leveraging its capabilities to introduce new materials created and approved by our artists.”
“We are all very excited about this new Spanish-language version, created with the help of artificial intelligence from legendary voices and endorsed by Brenda Lee herself.”
Cindy Mabe, UMG Nashville
“When you hear Brenda Lee’s iconic voice on television,” said Cindy Mabe, president and CEO of UMG Nashville, Rockin’ in the Christmas tree You know it’s the official start of Christmas.
“This global hit song has touched people around the world and captured the Christmas spirit of this young 13-year-old in a time capsule. We are all very excited about this new Spanish-language version, created with the help of artificial intelligence Below, created with the voice of the legend and endorsed by Brenda Lee herself, to help celebrate this enduring and timeless classic.
“This project is a very exciting showcase for our instant speech-to-speech plug-in MicDrop.”
British Telecom, Sound Labs
SoundLabs founder BT said: “This project is a very exciting demonstration of our real-time speech-to-speech plug-in MicDrop.
“Using the original master to train a model based on 13-year-old Brenda Lee was both a rewarding challenge and a creative breakthrough. We are excited about how this technology can breathe new life into a beloved Christmas classic with a truly human touch Excited about the way it blends innovation and tradition.
UMG noted on Friday that it supports bipartisan legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress to protect individuals’ vocal and visual likenesses from unauthorized computer-generated entertainment using generative artificial intelligence and other technologies such as deepfakes and voice-overs /image clone.
The bill is called the No Fake Act (Senate Bill 4875, U.S. House of Representatives HR 9551) and has the support of the entire creative community.
Recently, Brenda Lee joined hundreds of artists, songwriters, and other creators in supporting this in an open letter published by the Human Artistry Campaign, a global organization supporting responsible artificial intelligence. legislation.global music business
