YouTube is reportedly in talks with Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Records to get permission to train artificial intelligence (AI) using the song catalogs of artists under the auspices of these three music publishing companies. According to a Financial Times report, music from several dozen recording artists wants to be legally licensed by YouTube.
In November of last year, YouTube introduced the Dream Track for Shorts feature that generates 30-second background tracks in the style of nine top artists Alec Benjamin, Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Papoose, Sia, T-Pain, and Troye Sivan. The generated music can then only be used in the Shorts video.
Licensing is done to avoid the issue of being sued in the future. This week Udio and Suno were sued by Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Records for allegedly training AI to generate their music using the artist's work without permission.