That Drake-The Weeknd Song You Heard On Apple Music, Spotify? Yeah, It Was AI And It's Been Booted

Streaming services, including Apple Inc.’s AAPL Apple Music, Spotify Technology S.A. SPOT Spotify, Deezer and Tidal have pulled down “Heart On My Sleeve” — a song that utilized artificial intelligence to replicate the voices of Drake and The Weeknd. 

What Happened: After going viral over the weekend, a new track that apparently contains AI-produced imitation vocals from Drake and The Weeknd has been removed from numerous streaming platforms. 

The move came after a statement from the singers’ label, Universal Music Group UNVGY, denouncing the use of “infringing content created with generative AI,” reported BBC. 

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Ghostwriter, the anonymous creator of the track, asserts that the software employed to produce the song had been trained on the musicians’ voices. 

While the track has been pulled from TikTok, YouTube and other streaming platforms, some versions remain available on social media platforms like Twitter. 

The track itself imitates the singers’ trading verses about Selena Gomez, a pop star and actress who formerly dated The Weeknd.

AI music is here.

This is the 1st example of AI generated music that *really* wowed me.

This guy ghostwriter977 on TikTok made a Drake x The Weeknd track that's actually kind of insane?

You'll soon be able to make unlimited music by your favorite artists on demand with AI. pic.twitter.com/h0KtrM9Ghz

— Mckay Wrigley (@mckaywrigley) April 16, 2023

It was already expected that the next thing in generative AI would be music.

🔥 A song generated by AI with the synthesized voices of Drake and The Weeknd is trending 🔥

It's a song that these artists never sang or created!

It was created by a TikToker named Ghostwriter977… pic.twitter.com/CNVzLxQ4UU

— Javi Lopez ⛩️ (@javilopen) April 16, 2023

Before being taken down, the track was streamed 629,439 times on Spotify, which at the platform’s minimum royalty rate of $0.003 per stream, equates to approximately $1,888 in earnings, the report noted. 

Why It’s Important: In January earlier this year, a class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Stability AI, DeviantArt and Midjourney. 

The lawsuit alleged direct copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement related to forgeries and violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, among others. 

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Image generated using AI via MidJourney