Country singer Randy Travis has released a new song for the first time since he suffered a stroke in 2013 that left him unable to speak or sing properly. He didn’t sing the song, though; Instead, the vocals are created by artificial intelligence software and surrogate singers.
The song is called “Where That Came From,” and it’s exactly the kind of folky, sentimental tune I loved as a kid at the height of Travis’ fame. The producer created it by training an unnamed artificial intelligence model, starting with 42 of his voice-isolated recordings. Country singer James DuPre then set the vocals, which were transformed by artificial intelligence into Travis’ voice, under the supervision of Travis and his career-long producer, Kyle Leinen. Sisi’s voice.
In addition to being released on YouTube, the song is also released on other streaming platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify.
The result of Warner’s experiment is a mellow tune that captures Travis’ relaxed style, rarely straying from his baritone roots. It sounds like one of those singles that stayed on the charts long enough to make me nervously sway after working up the courage to ask a girl to dance at a middle school social.I wouldn’t say it’s a great Randy Travis song, but it’s certainly not the worst – I’d even say I like it.
Dustin Ballard, who runs various versions of the “There I Ruined It” social media account, creates AI voice imitations in much the same way as Travis’s team, giving birth to AI-like Elvis Presley singing a silly mashup like “Baby Got Back” or a synthesized Johnny Cash singing “Barbie Girl.”
It would be easy to sound alarm bells about this song, or Ballard’s creation, proclaiming the death of man-made music as we know it. But I’d say it does exactly the opposite, reinforcing what tools like AI voice cloning can do in the right hands. Whether you like the song or not, you have to admit you’re not going to get something like this from a random cue.
Cris Lacy, Co-President of Warner Music Nashville cbs sunday morning The AI voice cloning website produces approximations of artists like Travis that “doesn’t sound real because it’s not.” She called the label’s use of artificial intelligence to clone Travis’ voice “artificial intelligence forever.”
At the moment, Warner really can’t do much with AI cloning because it doesn’t think it falls under the heading of “artificial intelligence for good.” But Tennessee’s recently passed ELVIS bill, which goes into effect on July 1, will allow record companies to take legal action against those who use software to recreate an artist’s sound without permission.
Travis’ song is a great edge case of artificial intelligence being used to make music that actually feels legitimate. But on the other hand, it could also open up a new path for Warner, which owns the rights to a vast catalog of music by famous deceased artists that’s ripe for digital resurrection, with potential profits if they want to pull it off. . As touching as the story is, it made me wonder what lessons Warner Music Nashville — and the recording industry as a whole — would learn from this song.
