YouTube is working on a new application that aims to improve the music remix process for creators with artificial intelligence support. This feature, which is being tested with a limited group of users, will offer YouTube Shorts users customized music options that they can use in their short videos. This artificial intelligence-based tool, called “Dream Track”, provides users with different editing opportunities by changing elements such as mood, style or genre of certain songs. This new test by YouTube aims to support creators in preparing more creative short video content by providing them with the opportunity to reinterpret licensed songs.
Users participating in this testing process can choose a suitable song and write the changes they want to make as a command. Then, artificial intelligence technology comes into play and rearranges the song according to the specified features and creates a 30-second musical piece. YouTube states that the source of these remixed music must be cited in accordance with the copyrights of the original work. Remixed tracks are required to contain information on both the original music and the new version created with the contribution of artificial intelligence on the Shorts platform.
YouTube plans to offer rich content options to its users by including artificial intelligence-based sounds in this process with the Dream Track experiment. Artists taking part in the testing phase include names such as Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato and John Legend. The voices of these artists recreated with artificial intelligence can be used within the scope of testing. Thus, users can choose sounds inspired by popular artists to add a different interpretation to music in their short videos.
However, YouTube has not yet announced the list of all the music that will be remixed with the Dream Track feature. Similarly, he did not publicly announce which music production companies were collaborating with this project. According to a report published by the Financial Times in June 2023, it is stated that YouTube is in talks with major music production companies and has made various offers to use their music catalogs to train artificial intelligence models. This step is considered an important step to ensure that artificial intelligence-based music remixes remain within the legal framework.
YouTube may fuel AI debate in music industry
This new initiative by YouTube constitutes an important example of how the music industry can benefit from the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence in the digitalization process. However, the large-scale use of artificial intelligence in the music industry also brings with it some ethical and legal debates. In particular, artists and music producers have disagreements about the effects of artificial intelligence’s involvement in creative processes on copyright and artist rights. Despite these controversies, YouTube’s Dream Track feature is remarkable in that it offers content creators a richer selection of music in their short videos.
This feature, which YouTube is testing, can open new doors in the field of digital content production by enabling content producers to create original music in a short time with the help of artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the conditions under which the major producers of the music industry will be included in this project and the reactions of the artists to this process may determine how the platform will shape its AI-based features such as Dream Track in the coming period.