SoundLabs are a new technology company founded by BT, a Grammy-nominated producer, composer and electronic music artist who’s also a skilled software developer! In partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG), the company have announced a strategic agreement that will enable UMG’s global family of artists and producers to use SoundLabs MicDrop, a cutting-edge AI vocal plug-in, to create official ultra-high fidelity vocal models for artists, using their own voice data for training while retaining control over ownership and providing them with full artistic approval and control of the output.
Scheduled for launch in summer 2024, MicDrop aims to allow artists and producers to explore bleeding-edge vocal transformations that including voice-to-voice, voice-to-instrument, speech-to-singing, language transposition, and a myriad of previously impossible vocal transformations. The collaboration with UMG will allow their artists to create custom vocal models that will be available for their exclusive creative use cases, and will not available to the general public. The plug-in is said to be the first in a suite of interoperable AI tools and services that are being developed by SoundLabs for sound design and music generation.
SoundLabs are keen to point out that they were founded with a foundational respect for intellectual property rights, and are focused on helping artists retain creative control over their data and models.
“It’s a tremendous honour to be working with the forward-thinking and creatively aligned Universal Music Group. We believe the future of music creation is decidedly human. Artificial intelligence, when used ethically and trained consensually, has the promethean ability to unlock unimaginable new creative insights, diminish friction in the creative process and democratise creativity for artists, fans and creators of all stripes. We are designing tools not to replace human artists, but to amplify human creativity.” - BT
“UMG strives to keep artists at the centre of our AI strategy, so that technology is used in service of artistry, rather than the other way around. We are thrilled to be working with SoundLabs and BT, who has a deep and personal understanding of both the technical and ethical issues related to AI. Through direct experience as a singer and in partnership with many vocal collaborators, BT understands how performers view and value their voices, and SoundLabs will allow UMG artists to push creative boundaries using voice-to-voice AI to sing in languages they don’t speak, perform duets with their younger selves, restore imperfect vocal recordings and more.” - Chris Horton, SVP of Strategic Technology, Universal Music
Alongside Roland, UMG recently published the Principles for Music Creation with AI, a series of clarifying statements relating to the responsible use of AI in music creation, and are advocating for their adoption across the music industry and creative community. More information on the project can be found on the AI For Music website.
More information can be found on the SoundLabs website.
