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

After introducing a generative AI feature last year that produces music in the style of famous artists such as Charli XCX, John Legend and T-PainYouTube is now asking major record labels for permission to copy more musicians. financial TimesThe Google-owned video platform is offering a “one-time cash payment” to Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Records in exchange for licensing their songs to legally train its AI music tools.

Youtube told financial Times that it is not considering expanding Dream Track — which was supported by just ten artists during its testing phase — but confirmed that it was “in talks with labels about other experiments.” According to the report, the platform is aiming to license music from “dozens” of artists, which will be used to train new AI tools that YouTube plans to launch later this year. The fees YouTube is willing to pay for these licenses have not been disclosed, but the report says these will be one-off payments rather than royalty-based arrangements.

News of these discussions comes just days after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing record labels such as Sony, Warner and Universal, announced the signing of a new deal. Separate copyright infringement suits filed Generative AI sues two top music companies. The labels allege that Output from Suno and Udio These videos were created using “unlicensed copying of sound recordings on a large scale”, and the RIAA is seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each infringement.