A person calling himself a Ghostwriter, who appears under a sheet and whose identity is unknown, posted the song "Heart on my sleeve" this weekend where artists Drake and The Weekends voices are AI-generated. The song received a lot of attention, but already on Monday it began to be removed from several major streaming services.
Rolling stone writes that the song was posted on Spotify and Apple music already on April 4, but that it was on Tiktok this weekend that the song spread and over 11 million views.
Removed
According to Variety, by Monday, the song had received enough listens to be able to enter various music charts. Then it disappeared from both Tidal and Apple Music and on Spotify the song was "grayed out" which means that it is no longer available.
Drake's record label Universal has written a statement to Billboard strongly condemning the move, but would not answer whether the company demanded that streaming services remove the song.
"Last drop"
Both Drake and Universal have previously spoken out against AI generation of the Canadian superartist's voice. "This was the last straw," Drake wrote in an Instagram post, linking to a post in which Universal announced that the record giant had asked streaming services to block access to Universal's songs for AI companies.
In the clip, you can hear a piece of "Heart on my sleeve". Aftonbladet's music critic Markus Larsson says what he thinks of the song and Johan Axhamn, senior lecturer in intellectual property law, talks about how a change in Swedish copyright legislation can affect musicians who have their music used by AI copies.