
Universal Music Group Signs Deal With AI Startup Endel
Universal Music Group (UMG) has introduced a partnership with Endel, an organization that makes use of AI to generate soundscapes meant to facilitate work, meditation, and sleep. UMG will license use Endel’s know-how to allow its artists to create what it calls “science-backed” soundscapes designed to “improve listeners’ wellness.” The deal consists of each new music and new variations of catalog music.
Endel’s mannequin components in variables like climate, time of day, location, and coronary heart fee when customizing its audio streams for particular person customers. Earlier collaborations embrace tasks with Grimes, Miguel, Richie Hawtin, and UMG artist James Blake.
In a press release, UMG’s Chief Digital Officer Michael Nash stated:
The generative components of Endel’s tech are designed to allow musicians to make use of AI to scale their music advert infinitum, creating perpetually regenerating artworks in their very own type. “We’re in a position to create albums with the push of a button,” co-founder and chief composer Dmitry Evgrafov told Pitchfork final yr.
On April 14, a TikTok person uploaded a track referred to as “Heart on My Sleeve,” which purported to make use of AI to simulate the type and voice of UMG artists Drake and The Weeknd. UMG responded with a takedown discover. Three days later James Murtagh-Hopkins, UMG’s senior vp of communications, issued a press release condemning using copyrighted music to coach AI fashions, calling on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music to dam AI platforms from doing simply that: