Note: We want to be clear that this episode does include material that has been generated by Financial Times journalists using AI tools...we've done it to illustrate just how much AI is influencing the music industry.

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AI has arrived in the music world, and the industry is being forced to wrangle with it. The technology is now sophisticated enough to create entirely new deepfake songs. This year, millions of fake covers, and songs that clone the voices of musical artists, have appeared online. The FT’s pop critic Ludo Hunter-Tilney has fallen down a wormhole to make sense of how these programs work. He actually made a song of his own, an original fake song in the style of Tom Waits. He plays it for us, and it’s pretty bad.

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We love hearing from you! You can email us at ftweekendpodcast@ft.com. We’re on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.

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Links:

– Ludo’s piece for FT Life and Arts: Can AI make me a musical star? https://on.ft.com/3XRMnoZ

– Ludo is on Twitter @ludohunter

– Anna Nicolaou on why Spotify has ejected thousands of AI-made songs: https://on.ft.com/3rvSqnq

– One of Ludo’s recent stories – a review of Glastonbury festival: https://on.ft.com/3rvSq6U

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco.

Songs played: “Downtown Train” written by Tom Waits, published by Island Records. “Gritty Troubador’s Backstreet”, written by chatGPT, Ludo Hunter-Tilney, Voicify.ai and Boomy.

Songs referenced: “Dancing Queen” written by Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson, published by Stockholm Records and MCA/Universal. “Ni**as in Paris” written by Kanye West, Shawn Carter, John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky, Jeff Cox and Dave Cox, published by Roc-A-Fella, Roc Nation and Def Jam. “A Thousand Miles” written by Vanessa Carlton, produced by Ron Fair and Curtis Schweizer, published by A&M.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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AI hits the music industry

Life and Art from FT Weekend