YouTube Launches AI Music Remix Feature for Creators

YouTube included a capability for select creators in the U.S. to create AI- generated songs through prompts using the vocals of artists like Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Sia, T-Pain, and Troye Sivan last year. Now, the company is adding a feature for creators to remix a track by explaining how they want to change the song in their style.

The streaming platform is making select songs through its label partners available to creators for the new remix experiment.

If creators are part of this experiment, they can select their preferable song, then go to “Restyle a track” option, and describe how they want to restyle the track. This will create a 30-second bit that creators can use as Shorts in their YouTube.

On a support page, Google noted that the remixed sound snippet will be attributed to the original song through the Short and the Shorts audio pivot page. Plus, it will also have an appropriate label to indicate that the track was modified through AI. 

YouTube introduced the Dream Track feature in November 2023, powered by the Lyrical music generation model developed by DeepMind. At that time, YouTube also released a tool that created a track by a user just humming a tune.

YouTube said, “These experiments explore the capability of AI features to assist artists and creators stretch their imaginations and enlarge their creative activities. In turn, fans will be able to connect to the creatives they love in new ways, bringing them closer together through interactive tools and experiences. All of this will help us to repeat and enhance the technology, informing applications for the future.” 

Further, To save itself from the music industry’s ire, YouTube declared last August before releasing any of these tools that it plans to compensate artists and rightsholders for usage of their work in AI features. To that end, the company announced a partnership with Universal Music Group to develop a structure to pay rightsholders.

YouTube is not the only company providing features for users to remix tracks. Former JioSaavan exec Gaurav Sharma is building an app called Hook, which allows users to legally remix songs that could be used to create short videos on YouTube.