It's Drake vs AI Drake
We’ve gone from, “You heard that new Drake?” to, “You heard that new AI Drake?”
I wouldn’t be surprised if people start honestly comparing the actual artist to the AI version of the artist soon.
Is it good for the artist? No. Is it good for music fans? Yes.
Will labels hate it? Of course.
There is no way they or the artist can earn money from it yet. It’s the new Napster.
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Their problem then was how do you prevent someone from putting music on the internet? No one has really truly figured that out because piracy is still huge. So, how do you license the sound of someone’s voice when it’s not even their song with an original instrumental?
Sounds like we are in for a whole new legal battle for what constitutes IP of an artist. Is the sound of your voice something you can put up legal traffic cones around?
Probably at some point, but it’s the Wild West for now. Napster had 80 million users at one point, but these social media platforms have hundreds of millions of followers being pushed content in an artificially produced algorithm. The song already had 20 million views on Twitter, and 15 million views on other platforms like TikTok (where it was first posted by someone named Ghostwriter977.
The explosion of AI-generated music and content will certainly explode. Imagine what might happen if people start using AI to recreate deceased artists such as Frank Sinatra or Elvis. Their estates might try to stop them, but what about deceased artists who aren’t as well-known? Who will go to bat for them?
As pointed out in the above image, the real kicker is that no one owns the content. How do you own the sound of your voice if it is artificially generated? Technically, is it even your voice anymore, or is the software or AI the owner? Sure, it sounds like Drake. However, is it really Drake or the product of code sounding like something we know?
For now, labels have been able to get the song taken down on social platforms and streaming services. Even Drake took to Instagram upon someone recreating an Ice Spice song with his voice and said, “This is the final straw AI.” In some way, it feels like Drake is embracing internet culture as he always has.
Internet culture is what propelled him to superstardom. So, to some degree, he is probably laughing about it and will continue to boost his popularity off AI versions of himself. However, he is also saying this is getting ridiculous. But you know what has also been ridiculous? The plethora of Drake memes over the year. I don’t think he ever earned money from a meme of himself, though. Therefore, he might have to look at AI songs in the same way. It all propels him further into the pop culture lexicon.
To me, that’s the best W you can take away from it now. With his powers combined of real Drake vs. AI Drake, we might see an artist grow to heights we have never seen because everyone wants to be Drake, and now they can.
Hey, Fake Drake made quite a few dollars just doing appearances and pretending to be the guy.
