Artificial Intelligence has wormed its way into the art and writing spheres with programs like DALL-E and ChatGPT, and now it looks like music is the next big market. An artist and producer called simply Ghostwriter recently stirred up controversy with his viral hit featuring vocals modeled after Drake and The Weeknd using AI. The song — titled “Heart On My Sleeve” — garnered attention on TikTok in April, where it quickly went viral. Recently, the single was officially released on streaming platforms, and may even be eligible for a Grammy Award.
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How is it that a song with AI-generated vocals can get on a Grammy ballot? That’s just the thing: it can’t, not really. The Recording Academy updated the eligibility rules for the Grammys in June 2023, which added specifications for Artificial Intelligence. According to the new rules, only “human creators” can be nominated or win the coveted award. But that doesn’t mean all AI is out. A song can have AI-generated elements if there is proof that a human contributed to the majority of the composition.
This raises questions about the validity of Ghostwriter’s Grammy eligibility. Since the vocals were AI-generated in “Heart on My Sleeve,” but the actual music was human-made, is there any chance the song could get on the ballot?
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Technically — in its original form, anyway—no. This brings up intellectual property and copyright issues, since the vocals were modeled after existing artists. There’s no real way to copyright someone’s voice, but, according to musician Holly Herndon, “an artist retains exclusive commercial rights to their name and you cannot pass off a song as coming from them without their consent.” Mostly, it comes down to personality rights, which, in part, allow a person to control how their identity is used.
On September 5, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. stated “Heart on My Sleeve” was “absolutely [Grammy-]eligible because it was written by a human.” Although, three days later, he retracted his comments in a video on his personal Instagram, making it clear that the single would not make the cut because of the AI vocal modeling.
Ghostwriter wants to get on the ballot with “Heart on My Sleeve,” though, according to a recent interview with Billboard. That’s why, quietly and with good timing, he uploaded a new version of the song without any AI-generated vocals just days before the Grammy eligibility cutoff date. According to alleged confirmation from a Recording Academy representative, this version of “Heart on My Sleeve” is eligible for the Grammy ballot.
When asked about the issues surrounding AI-modeling artists’ voices without their consent, Ghostwriter’s manager stated, “I like to say that everything starts somewhere, like Spotify wouldn’t exist without Napster. Nothing is perfect in the beginning. That’s just the reality of things. Hopefully, people will see all the value that lies here.”
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Is there actual value in AI-generated music? Doesn’t that take the fun out of developing one’s own sound, image, and musical style? There are countless arguments on both sides, though the biggest issues with AI seem to stem from copyright infringement, intellectual property theft, and consent.
“Our thought process was, it’s a dope record, and it resonated with people,” said Ghostwriter’s manager when asked about pushing the song for Grammy eligibility. “It was a human creator who created this piece of art that made the entire music industry stop and pay attention. We aren’t worried about whether we win or not — this is about planting the seed, the idea that this is a creative tool for songwriters.”
What does Ghostwriter have to say about all this, though? “The Ghostwriter project,” he told Billboard, “is about not throwing art in the trash. I think there’s a way for artists to help provide that beauty to the world without having to put in work themselves. They just have to license their voices.”
Ghostwriter reappeared recently with a new release called “Whiplash,” this time modeled after the voices of 21 Savage and Travis Scott.
Photo by Prince Williams/Wireimage
