Music Business

A new AI created ‘Beatles’ song is making fans cry

A new AI-created song that “reunites” Paul McCartney and John Lennon to sing a rendition of McCartney’s post-Beatles song “New” is making fans cry.

The deep fake track is clearly and respectfully labeled: “We love you, lads. No copyright infringement intended. This is an AI creation,” but fans are still moved.

“This made me cry… I think it helps that I think John & George both would’ve loved this song.” one wrote. “This is unbelievable, just like a new Beatles song. Thank you so much for making this.”

The creator, Dae Lims, has also posted other Beatle’s related tracks, including several “Paul McCartney” deep fakes. But it’s “The Beatles – New [AI]The Beatles – New [AI]” that has stuck a nerve with fans.

There has been no official reaction yet from the reaming Beatles, Apple or Capital Records, Abby Road, Sony/ATV, or others in the web of rights holders who control parts of the Beatles catalog and legacy, but they seem sure to demand a takedown.

Until then, enjoy.

Here is the original McCartney version sans “Lennon.”

Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.

Bruce Houghton on 05/01/2023 in Music Business | Permalink | Comments (23)
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23 Comments

  1. Interesting stuff. AI in music certainly looks like its making a change. I was interested in how record labels were getting the AI Drake and The Weekend song off of streaming platforms. The legality behind AI seems to certainly stir some drama.

  4. Where this technology could get more interesting is if and when artists start using it themselves, legally with the blessing of former members or their estates, to fix holes in their catalogue. Imagine, for instance, when The Beatles did their Anthology in the 90s — rebuilding Free As a Bird and Real Love out of old John Lennon demos — how much further it could have gone with AI at their fingertips. Or imagine Queen making new music with Freddie Mercury’s voice using AI, instead of Adam Lambert.

  5. Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. Going forward human work will replace by AI. Very scary & crazy..

  6. La inteligencia artificial (IA) implica el uso de computadoras para hacer cosas que tradicionalmente requieren inteligencia humana. La IA puede procesar grandes cantidades de datos de formas que los humanos no pueden. El objetivo de la IA es poder hacer cosas como reconocer patrones, tomar decisiones y juzgar como humanos.

  10. Ahhhh that period of The Beatles when Gerry Rafferty replaced John. Why don’t you use your talents for good eh? I know, because it’s hard work.

  13. Just a copy. This used to be called plagiarism. Artificial, yes. Intelligent, no. Let it create a song from scratch.

  16. So what have we learned. If you take the average of all Beatles songs, you get an average song.

  17. Some things are better left alone. Now this opens the door to bastardizing the things that make original music special. I can already see it: an absurd mish-mash of disparate artists wantonly jammed together by every pimple-faced “expert” who can press a bunch of buttons. God help us all!

  18. Music is made by musicians. Moment of inspiration and exploration. Not simulated by a computer. Yuck

  19. I don’t like this kind of things..
    Music was, is, and will be made by musicians!
    Yes, AI is great.. but, what’s the purpose of doing things like this?
    Very soon we’ll must be having doubts about the “new bootlegs” releases or “unreleased songs” because of AI.

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