artificial intelligence
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Music made by generative AI has been on the horizon as an issue for a couple of years, and the industry started playing close attention when the “Fake Drake” track hit streaming services in April 2023. The part of the issue that gets the most attention is, of course, that part that involves celebrities — especially Drake, who objected when his voice was spoofed by AI and then used AI software to spoof the voices of other rappers.
That’s just the tip of a particularly dangerous iceberg, though, according to a new study commissioned by global collective management trade organization CISAC and conducted by PMP Strategy. Vocal imitations are fun, but how much time can you really spend listening to Frank Sinatra sing Lil Jon? The bigger issue is what generative AI means for new music — first for passive listening, presumably, and eventually for the entire business.
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Using quantitative and qualitative research, PMP concluded that a full $4 billion could be lost to composers and publishing rightsholders in 2028 — 24% of the revenue they collect through CISAC-member organizations. (This gets complicated: The study measures revenue that comes to them through collective management organizations, which includes performing rights and, in most cases, mechanical rights royalties.) This doesn’t even count the recording business, or revenue from synch licensing. By 2028, generative AI music will be worth $16 billion and the services that create it will bring in $4 billion in revenue. One previous study commissioned by SACEM and GEMA reached somewhat similar conclusions — in that case, that 27% of revenue would be at risk.
The music business is driven by new pop music, so there’s a tendency to focus on stars like Drake. But publishers and songwriters also depend on background music played in public — at bars and in stores — and streaming services have made a business out of utilitarian music, sounds to help listeners focus, relax or sleep. That might be where the impact of generative AI is felt first — the restaurant that plays AI music to avoid paying a performing rights organization, a playlist that avoids copyrighted music, a low-budget film that uses music generated by an algorithm. By 2028, the study predicts that generative AI could cut into 30% of digital revenue, 22% of TV and radio revenue and 22% of compositions played in public. Eventually, presumably, AI could generate hits as well.
To some extent, AI is inevitable.
“There’s no way we can or should stand against AI — it can be a wonderful tool,” said songwriter and ABBA frontman Björn Ulvaeus, who serves as president of CISAC, at a Nov. 3 online press conference to announce the results of the study. Many composers already use it as a tool, mostly for specific purposes. (I thought of using AI to write this column but I got nervous that it would do a poor job — and terrified that it would do a good one.) “Creators should be at the negotiating table,” Ulvaeus said. “The success of AI isn’t based on public content — it’s based on copyrighted works. We need to negotiate a fair deal.”
That’s only possible if generative AI companies are required to license the rights to ingest works, which by definition involves copying them. That seems to be the case already in the European Union, although the AI Act says rightsholders need to opt out in order to prevent the unauthorized use of their work to train AI software. In the U.S., until Congress turns its attention to AI, this is a matter for the courts, and in June the RIAA, on behalf of the major labels, sued the generative AI companies Suno and Udio for allegedly infringing their copyrights.
The study lays out a picture of how generative AI will develop between now and 2028, in both the music and audiovisual sectors — it will affect streaming revenue the most, but also change the market for music in TV and film. And although few people spend much time thinking about background music, it provides a living, or part of a living, for many musicians. If that business declines, will those musicians still be able to play on albums that demand their skills? Will studios that are booked for all kinds of music survive without the background music business?
The study predicts that the generative AI business will grow as the creative sector shrinks, as some of the money from music goes to software — presumably software trained on copyrighted works. “In an unchanged regulatory framework, creators will not benefit from the Gen AI revolution,” the study says. Instead, they will suffer “the loss of revenues due to the unauthorized use of their works” to train AI software and the “replacement of their traditional revenue streams due to the substitution effect of AI-generated outputs.”
Making sure composers and other creators are compensated fairly for the use of their works in training generative AI programs will not be easy. It would be hard for creators and other rightsholders to license a onetime right to use material for training purposes, after which an AI model can use it forever. The current thinking is that it makes more sense to license these rights, then require AI programs to operate with a certain level of transparency to track the works they reference in response to a given prompt. Then the owners of those works can be paid.
This is going to be hard. Getting it right means starting immediately — and the obvious first step is clarifying creators’ rights to be compensated when their work is used to train an AI.
Nvidia, the computer chip giant, has entered the AI music race by announcing its new model, Fugatto, on Tuesday (Nov. 26). The company calls Fugatto, short for Foundational Generative Audio Transformer Opus 1, a “Swiss Army knife for sound.”
Using text or audio prompts, Fugatto can generate new music at the click of a button and edit existing audio, including removing or adding instruments from a song or changing the accent and emotion in a voice, in seconds.
With Fugatto, Nvidia aims to take on today’s top AI music models, including Suno, Udio and many more. Though it is a late entrant in the race to create the best music AI model, Fugatto appears to have crisp audio quality and a number of capabilities that could change the music-making process for producers and composers.
According to the announcement on Nvidia’s blog, “One of the hardest parts of the effort was generating a blended dataset that contains millions of audio samples used for training,” which the company says it worked on for more than a year to get right. “The team employed a multifaceted strategy to generate data and instructions that considerably expanded the range of tasks the model could perform, while achieving more accurate performance and enabling new tasks without requiring additional data.” It is unclear whether or not this dataset included copyrighted material. Nvidia has not responded to Billboard’s request for comment.
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Nvidia proposes a number of use cases for Fugatto, including generating a score for visual media; editing certain parts of a score; and altering a voice to have different accents, emotions and timbres. “Fugatto can make a trumpet bark or a saxophone meow. Whatever users can describe, the model can create,” says Rafael Valle, a manager of applied audio research at Nvidia.
“The history of music is also a history of technology,” says Ido Zmishlany, a producer/songwriter and co-founder of One Take Audio, a member of Nvidia Inception, its program for cutting-edge startups. “With AI we’re writing the next chapter of music. We have a new instrument, a new tool for making music — and that’s super exciting.”
Nvidia claims this is the first AI music model that showcases “emergent properties — capabilities that arise from the interaction of its varous trained abilities — and the ability to combine free-form instructions.” Valle adds that Fugatto is “our first step toward a future where unsupervised multitask learning in audio synthesis and transformation emerges from data and model scale.”
So far, Nvidia has not provided a release date for Fugatto.
Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced the Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks (TRAIN) Act on Monday in the latest effort to shield songwriters, musicians and other creators from the unauthorized use of their works in training generative AI models.
If successful, the legislation would grant copyright holders access to training records, enabling them to verify if their creations were used — a process similar to methods combating internet piracy.
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“This is simple: if your work is used to train A.I., there should be a way for you, the copyright holder, to determine that it’s been used by a training model, and you should get compensated if it was,” said Welch. “We need to give America’s musicians, artists, and creators a tool to find out when A.I. companies are using their work to train models without artists’ permission.”
Creative industry leaders have long voiced concerns about the opaque practices of AI companies regarding the use of copyrighted materials. Many of these startups and firms do not disclose their training methods, leaving creators unable to determine whether their works have been incorporated into AI systems. The TRAIN Act directly addresses this so-called “black box” problem, aiming to introduce transparency and accountability into the AI training process.
Welch’s bill is just the latest development in the battle between rights holders and generative AI. In May, Sony Music released a statement warning more than 700 AI companies not to scrape the company’s copyrighted data, while Warner Music released a similar statement in July. That same month in the U.S. Senate, an anti-AI deepfakes bill dubbed the No FAKES Act was introduced by a bipartisan group of senators. In October, thousands of musicians, composers, international organizations and labels — including all three majors — signed a statement opposing AI companies and developers using their work without a license for training generative AI systems.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this month, U.S. Copyright Director Shira Perlmutter emphasized the importance of transparency to protect copyrighted materials, saying that without insight into how AI systems are trained, creators are left in the dark about potential misuse of their work, undermining their rights and earnings.
Sen. Welch has been active in promoting consumer protections and safety around emerging technologies, including AI. His previous initiatives include the AI CONSENT Act, which mandates that online platforms obtain informed consent from users before utilizing their data for AI training, and the Digital Platform Commission Act, which proposes the establishment of a federal regulatory agency for digital platforms.
The TRAIN Act left the station with immediate widespread support from creative organizations, including the RIAA, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SoundExchange and the American Federation of Musicians, among others.
Several music industry leaders praised the TRAIN Act for its potential to balance innovation with an eye on respecting creators’ rights. Mitch Glazier, RIAA chairman & CEO, highlighted its role in ensuring creators can pursue legal recourse when their works are used without permission. Todd Dupler, the Recording Academy’s chief advocacy and public policy officer, and Mike O’Neill, the CEO of BMI, echoed these sentiments, stressing the bill’s importance in preventing misuse and enabling creators to hold AI companies accountable.
David Israelite, president & CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association, pointed to the TRAIN Act as a vital measure to close regulatory gaps and ensure transparency in AI practices, while John Josephson, chairman and CEO of SESAC Music Group, praised its dual approach of promoting responsible innovation while protecting creators.
Additional endorsements came from SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe, who stressed the need for creators to understand how their works are being utilized in AI systems, Elizabeth Matthews, CEO of ASCAP, who stressed the need for artists to be fairly compensated, and Ashley Irwin, president of the Society of Composers & Lyricists, who emphasized the bill’s role in safeguarding the rights of composers and songwriters.
Select Music Industry Reactions to the TRAIN Act:
Mitch Glazier, RIAA: “Senator Welch’s carefully calibrated bill will bring much needed transparency to AI, ensuring artists and rightsholders have fair access to the courts when their work is copied for training without authorization or consent. RIAA applauds Senator Welch’s leadership and urges the Senate to enact this important, narrow measure into law.”
David Israelite, NMPA: “We greatly appreciate Senator Welch’s leadership on addressing the complete lack of regulation and transparency surrounding songwriters’ and other creators’ works being used to train generative AI models. The TRAIN Act proposes an administrative subpoena process that enables rightsholders to hold AI companies accountable. The process necessitates precise record-keeping standards from AI developers and gives rightsholders the ability to see whether their copyrighted works have been used without authorization. We strongly support the bill which prioritizes creators who continue to be exploited by unjust AI practices.”
Elizabeth Matthews, ASCAP: “The future of America’s vibrant creative economy depends upon laws that protect the rights of human creators. By requiring transparency about when and how copyrighted works are used to train generative AI models, the TRAIN Act paves the way for creators to be fairly compensated for the use of their work. On behalf of ASCAP’s more than one million songwriters, composer and music publisher members, we applaud Senator Welch for his leadership.”
Mike O’Neill, BMI: “Some AI companies are using creators’ copyrighted works without their permission or compensation to ‘train’ their systems, but there is currently no way for creators to confirm that use or require companies to disclose it. The TRAIN Act will provide a legal avenue for music creators to compel these companies to disclose those actions, which will be a step in the right direction towards greater transparency and accountability. BMI thanks Senator Welch for introducing this important legislation.”
John Josephson, SESAC: “SESAC applauds the TRAIN Act, which clears an efficient path to court for songwriters whose work is used by AI developers without authorization or consent. Senator Welch’s narrow approach will promote responsible innovation and AI while protecting the creative community from unlawful scraping and infringement of their work.”
Michael Huppe, SoundExchange: ”As artificial intelligence companies continue to train their generative AI models on copyrighted works, it is imperative that music creators and copyright owners have the ability to know where and how their works are being used. The Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks (TRAIN) Act would provide creators with an important and necessary tool as they fight to ensure their works are not exploited without the proper consent, credit, or compensation.”
Todd Dupler, The Recording Academy: “The TRAIN Act would empower creators with an important tool to ensure transparency and prevent the misuse of their copyrighted works. The Recording Academy® applauds Sen. Welch for his leadership and commitment to protecting human creators and creativity.”
The Artist Rights Symposium returns for a fourth year on Wednesday (Nov. 20) at a new location — American University’s Kogood School of Business. This year the day-long event will feature panels like “The Trouble with Tickets,” “Overview of Current Issues in Artificial Intelligence Litigation,” and “Name, Image and Likeness Rights in the Age of AI.” Plus, the symposium will feature a keynote with Digital Media Association (DiMA) president and CEO Graham Davies.
Founded by University of Georgia professor, musician and activist Dr. David C. Lowery, the event has been held at the university in Athens, Georgia for the last three years. Now that the event has moved to Washington, D.C., the Artist Rights Symposium can take advantage of the wealth of music professionals in the city. This includes D.C.-based panelists like Davies, Stephen Parker (executive director, National Independent Venue Association), Ken Doroshow (Chief Legal Officer, Recording Industry Association of America), Jalyce E. Mangum (attorney-advisor, U.S. Copyright Office), Jen Jacobsen (executive director, Artist Rights Alliance), Jeffrey Bennett (general counsel, SAG-AFTRA) and more.
The Artist Rights Symposium is supported by the Artist Rights Institute.
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See the schedule of events below:
9:15-10:15 – THE TROUBLE WITH TICKETS: The Challenges of Ticket Resellers and Legislative SolutionsKevin Erickson, Director, Future of Music Coalition, Washington DCDr. David C. Lowery, Co-founder of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, University of Georgia Terry College of Business, Athens, GeorgiaStephen Parker, Executive Director, National Independent Venue Association, Washington DCMala Sharma, President, Georgia Music Partners, Atlanta, GeorgiaModerator: Christian L. Castle, Esq., Director, Artist Rights Institute, Austin, Texas
10:15-10:30: NIVA Speculative Ticketing Project Presentation by Kogod students
10:45-11:00: OVERVIEW OF CURRENT ISSUES IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LITIGATIONKevin Madigan, Vice President, Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel, Copyright Alliance
11:00-12 pm: SHOW ME THE CREATOR – Transparency Requirements for AI TechnologyDanielle Coffey, President & CEO, News Media Alliance, Arlington, VirginiaDahvi Cohen, Legislative Assistant, U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff, Washington DCKen Doroshow, Chief Legal Officer, Recording Industry Association of America, Washington DCModerator: Linda Bloss-Baum, Director of the Kogod School of Business’s Business & Entertainment Program
12:30-1:30: KEYNOTEGraham Davies, President and CEO of the Digital Media Association, Washington DC.
1:45-2:45: CHICKEN AND EGG SANDWICH: Bad Song Metadata, Unmatched Funds, KYC and What You Can Do About ItRichard James Burgess, MBE, President & CEO, American Association of Independent Music, New YorkHelienne Lindvall, President, European Composer & Songwriter Alliance, London, EnglandAbby North, President, North Music Group, Los AngelesAnjula Singh, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, SoundExchange, Washington DCModerator: Christian L. Castle, Esq, Director, Artist Rights Institute, Austin, Texas
3:15-3:30: OVERVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LEGISLATIONGeorge York, Senior Vice President International Policy from RIAA.
3:30-4:30: NAME, IMAGE AND LIKENESS RIGHTS IN THE AGE OF AI: Current initiatives to protect creator rights and attributionJeffrey Bennett, General Counsel, SAG-AFTRA, Washington, DCJen Jacobsen, Executive Director, Artist Rights Alliance, Washington DCJalyce E. Mangum, Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Copyright Office, Washington DCModerator: John Simson, Program Director Emeritus, Business & Entertainment, Kogod School of Business, American University
SoundCloud announced the roll out of a number of new AI partnerships on Tuesday (Nov. 19), underscoring its intent to integrate emerging technology into the platform — as long as it is used ethically.
Now, SoundCloud users will have access to six new assistive AI tools, including Tuney, Tuttii, Beatz, TwoShot, Starmony and ACE Studio. The company is also using Audible Magic and Pex to ensure that these new AI integrations are backed up by strong content identification tools that provide rights holders with proper credit and compensation.
These new partners join a list of existing AI integrations — Fadr, Soundful and Voice-Swap — SoundCloud has already worked into its platform. Now, any artist can use these tools and then easily share them to SoundCloud through a built-in “Upload to SoundCloud” option within each tool. Songs uploaded directly to SoundCloud will be automatically tagged to show the tool used (i.e. “Made with Tuney”) and artists can edit their newly uploaded tracks directly from their SoundCloud profile page.
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Additionally, SoundCloud has signed on to AI For Music’s “Principles for Music Creation with AI,” which was founded by Roland and Universal Music Group. Its principles include five points, like “we believe that human-created works must be respected and protected,” and “we believe music is central to humanity.”
SoundCloud Next Pro creators can access exclusive discounts and free trials for its nine partnered tools through SoundCloud for Artists.
“SoundCloud is paving the way for a future where AI unlocks creative potential and makes music creation accessible to millions, while upholding responsible and ethical practices,” said Eliah Seton, CEO of SoundCloud. “We’re proud to be the platform that supports creators at every level, fuels experimentation and empowers fandom.”
Learn more about the partnerships below:
Tuney: SoundCloud users can now use Tuney’s AI-powered tools to reinterpret original songs they have posted to SoundCloud (including private ones) without having to know the complexities of using a digital audio workstation (DAW). Using the new “Upload to SoundCloud” button, users can then share their creations quickly and easily back to the platform. Tuney’s Beat Swap feature is among the tools available to SoundCloud users, which can generate new remixes of a song by using a vocal stem and filling in the rest of the blanks.
In a statement provided to Billboard, Tuney CEO/co-founder Antony Demekhin said of the collaboration: “At a time when the major music companies are fighting tech platforms that illegally train on copyrighted works, we see this integration as paving the path for the ethical application of generative tech where rightsholders, artists and fans all benefit from innovation.”
Tuttii: SoundCloud fans can now use this AI-powered app to remix and mash up songs to share on social media with greater ease than using a DAW.
AlBeatz: SoundCloud users can now generate and customize professional-grade beats to work off of in their own original creations.
TwoShot: Created to help music producers kick start their creativity, TwoShot now offers SoundCloud users its massive sample library of AI generated sounds. The company also offers an AI co-producer tool, called Aiva, who can talk through musical ideas with users and help users search through TwoShot’s library.
Starmony: Tailored for singers and rappers, Starmony will now let SoundCloud users upload a vocal they’ve composed, and then the platform will provide professional-sounding production to fill in the instrumental elements of the song.
ACE Studio: With ACE Studio’s platform, musicians using SoundCloud can create their own AI voice models for use in the studio. For one, musicians can convert a melody, written out in MIDI, and convert it into a realistic sounding voice. This can also allow users to generate AI choirs of voices and edit vocals generated by Suno.
Pioneering producer and singer Imogen Heap has partnered with Jen, an ethical AI music creation platform, to launch two new models inspired by her musical stylings. The partnership was announced Thursday (Nov. 14) at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
First, Heap is launching her own StyleFilter model, Jen’s patented tool that allows users to create original tracks that infuse the distinct musical styles of of an artist or producer into their new works. Specifically for Heap’s collaboration, the StyleFilter model was trained on her new singles “What Have You Done To Me” and “Last Night of an Empire.” Importantly, StyleFilter is said to do this while still “maintaining transparency, protection and compensation” for Heap. Secondly, Heap and Jen have also announced a new AI voice model trained on Heap’s distinct vocals.
Jen co-founder and CEO, Shara Senderoff, and Heap took the stage at Web Summit’s Centre Stage to demonstrate how StyleFilter works, transforming prompts into compositions that weave Heap’s style into a user’s original works. Watch their explanation below:
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Over her decades-long career, Heap has been viewed as an innovator, pushing the boundaries of art and technology. Since the early days of her career, she has popularized the use of vocoders. Later, she developed her own products, like the Mi.Mu gloves, a wearable tool that allows her to record loops and edit vocals with small hand movements, and The Creative Passport, a service that combines all of an artist’s information in one place from a bio, press photos, royalty accounting, set lists and more.
Last month, in an interview with The Guardian, Heap explained her new AI assistant, called Mogen, which is trained on Heap’s interviews, speeches and TK to act as essentially a living autobiography that can answer questions for fans in her persona. Later, she hopes to expand Mogen to be trained on her musical improvisation and to become a live collaborator at gigs.
Imogen Heap and Shara Senderoff at Web Summit
Jen is an AI music making platform that puts transparency at the forefront. Its Jen-1 model, launched in June, is a text-to-music model trained on 40 different licensed catalogs (and then verified against 150 million songs). It is also backed by APG founder/CEO Mike Caren, who came on as a founding partner in fall 2023. As Senderoff explained in a August 2023 interview with Billboard, “Jen is spelled J-E-N because she’s designed to be your friend who goes into the studio with you. She’s a tool.”
Jen uses blockchain technology to ensure transparency and the ability to track its works after they are generated and put out in the world. Each of the works created with Heap’s StyleFilter will be authorized for use through Auracles — an upcoming non-profit platform, designed by Jen, that uses data provenance to give artists have more access, control and permission for what is made using their StyleFilter model.
While other AI companies have worked on creating personalized AI music models, trained on a specific producer or artists catalog before, like Soundful Collabs, the team at Jen believes StyleFilter is different because “it can learn and apply the style of an artist by training on a single song, establishing a new level of creative precision and efficiency,” says a spokesperson for the company.
“Shara’s integrity shines an outstanding light at this pivotal moment in our human story,” says Heap. “The exponential curve of innovation in and with AI attracts opportunists primarily focused on filling their pockets in the gold rush or those racing at speed to stick their ‘technological flag’ in the sand to corner a marketplace. Alongside the clear innovation in products and new revenue streams for musicians at Jen, Shara’s inspiring strength and determination to get the ethical foundations right from the start are inspiring. An all-too-rare example of a service, contributing to a future where humans are empowered, valued and credited, within and for our collective global tools and knowledge.”
“At Jen, we are determined to create innovative products that invite artists to participate as AI reshapes the music industry, enabling their artistry to take new forms as technology evolves while ensuring they are respected and fairly compensated,” says Senderoff. “Our StyleFilter is a testament to this vision, introducing a groundbreaking way for users to collaborate with the musical essence of artists they might never have the chance to work with directly. Premiering this product with Imogen Heap, a pioneer at the intersection of music and technology, exemplifies our commitment to build with respect and reverence for those who paved the way. She’s also an incomparable human that I’m honored to call my friend.”
By the time Elvis Presley’s Comeback Special was taped in 1968, The King was not just on the ropes but nearly down for the count. A lengthy period in the wilderness starring in commercially successful but critically derided musicals throughout the 1960s had left his reputation in tatters as a new wave of musicians rose to prominence. There was hope, however, that a stellar performance at the special — for which a new song, “If I Can Dream,” was written — could help him win back the hearts of the American people.
This moment in time is where Elvis Evolution, an upcoming experiential installation in London, will begin for its audience. Set to debut at the recently-opened Immerse LDN in May 2025, the show’s creators view this as the moment when Presley was at his most vulnerable and authentic, making it the perfect jumping-off point for an odyssey that will trace the arc of his musical journey — from his upbringing in rural Mississippi to Memphis’ iconic Sun Studios and Beale Street to the backlots of NBC Studios in Burbank, California, where the Comeback Special was shot.
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To bring Presley’s musical journey to life, Elvis Evolution will utilize archival material and cutting-edge technology, including generative artificial intelligence, holograms and projections, alongside live music performances from a house band and themed set designs. The show comes from Layered Reality, a production company that fuses digital technology with live theater, and Academy Award-winning special effects company The Mill. In 2023, the former secured the rights from the Presley estate and Authentic Brand Group to license the icon’s image and likeness.
The announcement of Elvis Evolution came amid renewed interest in Presley’s life and music. In 2022, Baz Luhrmann’s jukebox epic Elvis told the story of the singer and his rocky relationship with manager Colonel Tom Parker. And Sofia Coppola’s 2023 movie Priscilla examined his first and only marriage from the perspective of his wife.
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Contrary to those interpretations, Elvis Evolution’s director Jack Pirie — who shares a co-writing credit with playwright Jessica Siân — says the show will remain focused strictly on the music. “What I hope we can do with this show is to move away from the myth of what Elvis represented and the image of him in his later years in a white jumpsuit in Las Vegas,” he says. “We want to go back to who he was as a kid, and look at the music he was listening to and how that shaped him.”
Pirie says Elvis Evolution resulted from the success of other, similarly tech-heavy experiences to debut in the U.K. recently. In 2023, cutting-edge digital art venue Outernet in central London attracted more visitors (6.25 million) than the British Museum (5.83 million). The wildly popular Abba Voyage experience, which started in 2022 and features performing avatars of the Swedish pop group, just extended its run into May 2025.
Even Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour concert film, which was released in cinemas to big grosses last year, was cited by Pirie as an example of music fans being willing to celebrate in “a non-traditional environment.”
“Elvis didn’t sit at home listening to music on his phone, he had to go out and seek and experience it,” says Andrew McGuinness, founder/CEO of Layered Reality, which previously produced an immersive version of Jeff Wayne’s War of The Worlds musical and The Gunpowder Plot starring Tom Felton. “The fact that live music runs through the DNA of the story makes it a great property to do it this way.”
Elvis Evolution initially caused controversy when it was revealed that the show would use generative artificial intelligence to help recreate Presley in hologram form. But McGuinness and Pirie tell Billboard that the technology is being used only to enhance authentic moments in Presley’s career. For example, they say the technology will help bring new perspectives and sightlines to the ‘68 Comeback Special, for which only limited camera angles exist. As with any powerful tool, says McGuinness, you need to be “bloody careful” with how AI is employed: “We’re not trying to confect something and we take the responsibility with the utmost importance,” he says.
Tickets went on sale for Elvis Evolution in October, and only a limited number remain available through the show’s opening weeks — specifically, May 10 to June 1. The 110-minute experience will have timed entry, with several performances set to take place each day. Tickets start at £75 ($97), while VIP packages are also available, including the “Burning Love” experience, which includes additional merchandise and VIP seating, and the “If I Can Dream” package, which features tickets to the show, commemorative merch and premium access to the show’s daily after-party.
The show’s venue, Immerse LDN, opened at the Royal Docks’ ExCel convention center in July 2024 and is currently hosting both the Formula 1 Exhibition and The Friends Experience: The One In London, both of which use multi-sensory technology and set design. The immersive venue, which will total 160,000 square feet once completed, is part of a £300 million ($387 million) investment in ExCel.
McGuinness and Pirie’s hope is that Elvis Evolution will be successful enough to be toured globally, and they’re particularly excited about the prospect of taking it to some of the U.S. locations that have strong roles in his story, from Las Vegas to Memphis and beyond.
The show’s success could also create opportunities for similar experiences around other music icons; while McGuinness notes that the commercial demands and scale of such events make only a small group of artists “suitable,” he says discussions have already begun between Layered Reality and other artists’ estates.
Though Presley’s outsized legend makes him one of the few artists, living or dead, to be well-suited for such an elaborate and expensive production, McGuinness adds that one of the goals of the project was to strip away the iconography and get to the root of the person he was.
“There’s a humanity that can get lost with any musician or celebrity, and before I started this project, I was prone to seeing Elvis just as an ‘icon,’” he says. “But within this experience, you get to see him as a man, too.”
BERLIN — GEMA, the German performing rights organization (PRO), today sued OpenAI for copyright infringement in Munich regional court, alleging that the technology company used without permission lyrics from songs to which GEMA licenses rights. This makes GEMA the first PRO to file such a lawsuit, although it controls some rights that U.S. societies do not. This also seems to be the first case involving only lyrics; the case does not involve recordings. In its announcement, GEMA described the suit as a “model action,” aimed at clarifying copyright law in Germany, and potentially all of Europe.
Since OpenAI offers copyrighted song lyrics in response to prompts, GEMA is alleging that the company trained its software on song lyrics that it has the rights to license, so it is suing the company for violations of the making available and reproduction right. (Making available is a right under European law that in this case is roughly analogous to the right of public performance, or in this case public display. It’s also alleging two infringing reproductions – one to ingest the lyrics for training purposes and another when they are output.) In the U.S., PROs do not control mechanical rights, so they would not have the standing to file such a lawsuit.
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So far, most of the music business lawsuits involving AI companies have been over the ingestion of recordings, although that by definition would also involve the underlying compositions. But OpenAI is already facing a considerable amount of litigation, including a putative class action from authors, a lawsuit from The New York Times, and one each from online publishers and other newspapers. The issue in the U.S. is whether or not copying to train an AI qualifies as a “fair use” exception to copyright law. The record label cases against Suno and Udio will involve the same principle.
European copyright law provides “exceptions and limitations” to copyright, rather than fair use, and the 2019 Copyright Directive allows text and data mining unless rightsholders opt-out. In this case, however, GEMA has opted out for all of the works it licenses. (GEMA does not license the lyrics for all the songs in its repertoire, but the lawsuit involves ones for which it does.) This lawsuit aims to clarify the law, and it has the support of some big German songwriters, as well as their publishers.
“Our members’ songs are not free raw material for generative AI systems providers’ business models,” said GEMA CEO Tobias Holzmüller in a statement. “Anyone who wants to use these songs must acquire a license and remunerate the authors fairly. We have developed a license model for this. We are taking and will always take legal action against unlicensed use.”
The lawsuit comes as rightsholders around the world are becoming more concerned about how AI will affect the value of their works, as well as how they should be compensated for how it is trained. At the end of September, GEMA presented a licensing model for generative AI software that would compensate songwriters and publishers. It has also sent letters to AI companies stating they must license GEMA works in order to use them.
Since OpenAI both operates servers and makes content available in Germany, it will presumably have to operate according to German law. This seems clearer than the U.S. system, where fair use often involves considerable uncertainty. However, European countries do not offer rightsholders the opportunity to collect damages as high as they can get in the U.S.
A representative for OpenAI did not immediately return a request for comment.
Jerry Garcia‘s estate has partnered with AI voice company ElevenLabs to bring the late Grateful Dead guitarist, singer and songwriter’s AI-recreated voice to its Iconic Listening Experience on the ElevenReader app. Now, Deadheads using the app can hear Garcia’s voice read out audiobooks, e-books, articles, poetry, fan stories, PDFs and more in 32 different languages.
Garcia is the latest in a string of partnerships between ElevenLabs and famous estates. Already, the AI voice company has rolled out voice models for Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds and Sir Laurence Olivier to its Iconic Listening Experience. According to a company spokesperson, ElevenLabs worked “in close collaboration with the Jerry Garcia Estate to ensure that the reproduction of Garcia’s voice was as authentic and true to his legacy as possible.”
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In addition to the ElevenReader, Garcia’s voice model will also be used in various upcoming projects associated with the Jerry Garcia Foundation. This could include narrated documentaries, audio art exhibits and more.
This announcement with the Garcia estate shows ElevenLabs taking another step towards infiltrating the niche of AI music. In May, the company’s head of design Ammaar Reshi gave a “very early preview” of an ElevenLabs AI music generator on X, formerly known as Twitter. For now, however, Garcia’s voice model is only available to read various texts.
The Garcia voice model is the latest instance of deceased or older musicians and their estates partnering with AI companies to market the artists’ catalogs and personas to the next generation of fans. Warner Music and the estate of “La Vie En Rose” singer Edith Piaf, for instance, partnered with an AI company to bring the late French singer’s voice back to life for an upcoming biopic, and last month, Universal Music Enterprises and Brenda Lee used AI to translate her Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” into Spanish, enabling Lee, who is now 79, recreate the youthful tone of her voice from the time when she originally recorded the song.
“My father was a pioneering artist, who embraced innovative audio and visual technologies,” says Keelin Garcia, daughter of Jerry and co-founder and vp of the Jerry Garcia Foundation. “In the 1990’s, my dad introduced me to the computer, digital art, and video games. When we traveled on concert tour, we played on Game Boy. At home, we’d have fun playing on the Macintosh in the studio where my father created his first digital art, and housed his MIDI guitar. Now, as technological landscapes continue to expand, ElevenLabs AI Audio technology will offer fans the first opportunity to hear and stream a replica of my father’s voice reading their favorite books and other written content.”
“At ElevenLabs, we’re committed to preserving and celebrating cultural legacies while pushing the boundaries of technology,” said Dustin Blank, Head of Partnerships at ElevenLabs. “By bringing voices like Jerry Garcia to our platform, we’re not just enhancing our app – we’re creating new ways for people to experience content.This project has been a labor of love, and we couldn’t be happier with how Jerry’s voice has been recreated. It’s a beautiful thing to bring his sound to life again for both longtime fans and a new generation of listeners.”
ASCAP and SACEM are expanding their existing relationship into an alliance that will allow them to invest together in data technology and collect directly from streaming services in more foreign markets, plus launch an AI task force and encourage collaboration among songwriters. Since 2022, SACEM has collected money from online services in foreign markets for ASCAP […]