A music producer by the name of Ghostwriter977 released the song “Heart On My Sleeve” to Spotify, Apple Music and other various streaming platforms April 24. Initially gaining most of its popularity from TikTok, the viral song received lots of attention from users all over the world for its impressive use of AI and production to create a song that sounds almost identical to something that we are used to hearing from big name music artists Drake and The Weeknd.
When I first heard the song on TikTok I didn’t even realize it was AI, I just assumed it was a new song or maybe an unreleased song that had been leaked by users on the platform. It wasn’t until I started reading comments that I found out that it was completely original to a small TikToker by the name of Ghostwriter977.
Where the situation takes its major turn is the controversy that it struck online. After 14 days of being released, the song was yanked from all music streaming platforms byUniversal Music group due to alleged violation of copyright law. This seems logical considering that the song feels and sounds like Drake and The Weeknd, even though they had nothing to do with the making of the song at all. Questions started rising about whether the song was in violation of anything at all.
Billboard’s recent instagram post from Sept. 6 struck me by surprise when I read that the viral song was submitted for Grammy consideration. It is now said that the song is eligible. Even though it is mimicking Drake and the Weeknd, it is completely original to the small artist and was written by a human. From my perspective as a listener, I actually really like the song and enjoy listening to it. I think it’s really creative in the use of artificial intelligence to mimic the voices of Drake and The Weeknd. However, I think it’s unfair to other artists nominated for that category that the AI generated song is eligible for grammy consideration.
The anonymous artist does not have any sort of permission to mimic these peoples voices and generate music. If the song itself alone was written and sung by the artist Ghostwriter977, would it be as popular as it is or would it even be considered for a grammy title? I think that the largest part of the reason why this song blew up in the first place was because it just sounds like Drake and The Weeknd. The song gained a lot of listens and popularity in the midst of the violation controversy and I think that is exactly what Ghostwriter977 intended. If the song was all original to Ghostwriter977, it wouldn’t even be a popular song, but using two huge artists as a gateway made the whole thing possible.
Neither Drake or The Weeknd have come out to make any statements on the songs Grammy submission, but CEO of The Recording Academy Harvey Mason Jr. made several statements addressing the arguments being made online stating “it’s absolutely eligible because it was written by a human.” He also said “We know A.I. is going to play a role in our business. We can’t pretend to turn our back on it and try to ban it.”
As artificial intelligence continues to advance day-to-day, this certainly won’t be the last time we hear from artists like Ghostwriter making names for themselves producing music like this.
