Voice-Swap’s Post

Thanks to Billboard for this exclusive interview with our CEO Dan Stein / DJ Fresh and Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Michael Pelczynski. In it, they outline our vision for where we see AI voice modelling going – not a novelty 'magic trick', but a new form of monetisable intellectual property for artists. We paid our first royalties for the use of AI voices in January, something we're very proud of. Unlike other examples, our artists are paid their royalty split at the point of inference, as well as through traditional royalties on streaming platforms, if the music made with their voices is released. We see ourselves as an agency, representing artists and their voices, securing passive income across royalties, licensing, partnerships, collaborations, features and many more opportunities. The tech facilitates those opportunities, but it's the artists who benefit. After all, it's their voice, their career and their talent. Read the exclusive interview below 👇 https://lnkd.in/ePS3zayK

Thank you to Cherie Hu and Water & Music for including our revolutionary partnership with BMAT Music Innovators in their Music AI Content and Copyright Detection report. Water and Music has been a leading light in music tech research for years and has been a big inspiration for Voice-Swap and the team so to be included here is an honour. It's also a testament to BMAT, and the wider Voice-Swap team that we could create a technical solution to audit training data for copyrighted content – something we believe should – and will – become an industry standard. Huge respect too to the other companies listed here, we are all attempting to calm the turbulent AI waters and forge a safer future for artists and the wider music industry. Despite what some tech platforms might say, consent and compensation are possible 🙏🏻

It was an honour to be asked to talk about AI, ethics and Voice-Swap on Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc. (TBS) this week. Big up our CEO Dan Stein / DJ Fresh! Still so much work to be done all over the world on this topic 🫡

"Streaming has gutted the middle class of artists, shifting rewards to those who own catalogues at scale — micro-pennies mean little to those with three albums, but can mean a lot to labels with 30,000. AI, too, relies on scale: the more quality data you hoard, the more valuable your asset for licensees. Once again, this leaves independent artists sidelined with little voice or influence over the emerging tech that can define their future. And if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu." Read our Communications Director Declan McGlynn wrote an op-ed for Music Tech Magazine on the latest lawsuits in AI and music, the good news and the bad news and what they might mean for artists if and when a settlement is reached ✍🏻 https://lnkd.in/euGZ5rAz

Placing the burden on creators to protect their #work and #copyrights, while neglecting past transgressions, is a significant overreach. We need *authentically* ethical AI innovators, with third-party assistance, to tackle this challenge. They must also ensure fair compensation for the use of others' creative IP. Quote from the linked article: "This overture is like having your valuables stolen from your home and then hearing the thief say, 'Don’t worry, I’ll give you a chance to opt out of future burglaries ... next year.'" https://lnkd.in/gEySY4t5

Thanks to PRS for Music for having us for their Member's Day panel on Composing with AI. It's always enlightening to discuss AI with working musicians, producers, artists and singers and hear their concerns and thoughts. Was a great discussion – thanks for the invite and thanks to our co-panellists Rachel Lyske and ilā Kamalagharan 🫡 ❤️

We've partnered with BMAT Music Innovators on a new technical certification to screen AI music and voice training data for copyright infringements. The certification references an AI music or voice model's training data against BMAT's database of 180 million audio fingerprints to confirm no infringement takes place in the dataset. We believe that transparency must be at the heart of AI music tools if they are to co-exist with the wider music industry. We are honoured to have such a respected and trusted partner in BMAT Music Innovators who already perform 30 billion(!) checks per day for all major labels, publishers, DSPs and more. A harmonious future between AI and the music industry is possible – consent, control and compensation must all be part of that solution. Find out more about the cert in the graphics below and also read our blog for more info: https://lnkd.in/djbTTBZm

We were honoured to be demoed in Washington DC as part of the The Recording Academy GRAMMYs On The Hill event. The multi-day event is a chance for stakeholders from the music industry to descend on DC to discuss the issues facing artists, labels and the wider industry. A new day of talks called Future Forum, co-organised by the Human Artistry Campaign, explored some of the ways AI may shape the future of music-making. Academy member Dani Deahl chose to demo Voice-Swap as an example of how voice cloning can be done ethically, not just with the artist's consent but by providing them with a new source of revenue and a new form of IP. It was an honour to be part of the event – thank you to Dani and the Recording Academy! We've got more news regarding artists, IP and copyright protection coming this week, but more on that later. For now, you can find out more about the DC event on our website: https://lnkd.in/dwJu9ZSP

Thank you to The Economist for the shout-out in their latest piece on AI and music. "Today, numerous artificial-intelligence (ai) models churn out, some free of charge, the music itself. Unsurprisingly, many fear a world flooded with generic and emotionally barren tunes, with human musicians edged out in the process. Yet there are brighter signs, too, that ai may well drive a boom in musical creativity." There are indeed brighter signs, from us and others. We're excited to share more on that front very soon 🫡 https://lnkd.in/d3xudh9Q