YouTube is trying to make AI music deals with major record labels

After debuting a generative AI feature last year that produces music in the style of famous artists like Charli XCX, John Legend and T-Pain, YouTube is now asking major record labels to allow it to clone more musicians. According to Financial TimesThe Google-owned video platform is offering to pay Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Records “cash amounts” in exchange for licensing their music to legally train its AI music tools.

YouTube told Financial Times that it does not intend to expand Dream Track – which was supported by just ten artists during the testing phase – but confirmed that it was “in talks with record labels about other experiments”. The platform intends to license music from “dozens” of artists, according to the report, which will be used to train new AI tools that YouTube plans to launch later this year. The fee YouTube is willing to pay for these licenses was not disclosed, but the report says they will likely be one-off payments rather than royalty-based deals.

News of these discussions comes just days after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which represents record labels including Sony, Warner and Universal, filed separate copyright infringement lawsuits against two of the leading AI generative music companies. The record companies allege that the Suno and Udio productions were produced using “unlicensed copying of large-scale sound recordings,” with the RIAA seeking damages of up to $150,000 per infringement.