Musicians can now license and monetize AI singers

New technology start-up Myvox has launched and is offering musicians the opportunity to license human-sounding AI singers for their songs. This is a legal alternative to vocal cloning.

The launch of Myvox, a platform legally integrating AI technology into music creation, was announced by two musicians, Maeve and John Clancy, on Monday.

In essence, this is a vision of ordinary creators and renowned artists collaborating. That’s because the idea is for users to create original songs with AI-cloned and licensed vocals – with the permission of the celebrity artist whose voice mode is used.

“Users can create original songs with these AI-cloned vocals, distribute directly to all streaming platforms, collect royalties and share in the revenue with the artist,” the new platform says on its website.

First, though, users have to be able to sing (or rap) because its their vocals that are transformed into the vocals of, say, their favorite artists. There’s also the artist version where they themselves can upload the samples for others to use.

Cybernews tried this out too (admittedly, the free and thus quite simple version), and was amazed to hear a few simple lines converted to a nice little song by Sevdaliza, an Iranian-Dutch singer-songwriter. She created Myvox’s Ai artist, Dahlia – its voice is what we heard after conversion.

Myvox aims to provide songwriters with a legal alternative to vocal cloning, a practice that involves using generative AI services to mimic the voices of well-known artists.

In recent months, deep-fake versions of musicians such as Drake and The Weeknd have been used in songs, gaining millions of plays before being taken down from platforms like TikTok, Spotify, and YouTube.

One specific example, the computer-generated song “heart on my sleeve,” about the Weeknd’s ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez, went viral, racking up more than 20 million views on Twitter/X, and 11 million views on TikTok.

Universal Music Group soon had it taken down but by then it was clear that the music industry was caught unprepared by the rise of AI. Now, it’s trying to get in the game, it seems.

MyVox says that by licensing AI singers through Myvox, artists can enhance their music creatively while respecting the rights and identities of real singers. This way everybody wins, the start-up insists.

It remains to be seen whether the fresh model will stick. But if Cybernews’ little song voiced by Dahlia suddenly went viral on streaming platforms such as Spotify or TikTok, 50% of royalties would go to Sevdaliza.

As Cybernews reported back in February, fears are growing that self-improving machines will ultimately replace human composers and producers in the electronic music industry. However, creators of AI music-generating apps have insisted that “generative music” will actually lower the bar of entry into the industry.